People often ask me about “As Is.” What does it mean? Is there something wrong with the property when part of the description says “as is?” Frankly, I often tell them, all properties are sold AS IS per contract. Adding the words “as is” to a property description is just emphasizing to a buyer that a seller is unwilling to do any work after the property is purchased. If you refer to the CAR Purchase Agreement - paragraph 7A (i) - it states “Unless otherwise agreed property is sold in its PRESENT physical condition as of the date of Acceptance.” If you read further within that same paragraph it also notes that the buyer has the right to inspect the property and is urged to do so, and that they are then allowed to either cancel the agreement or request repairs from the seller based on what they discover.
After an inspection a buyer often prepares a “request for repairs” and asks a seller to either repair certain items or credit the buyer for repairing those items themselves. Basically, a whole new round of negotiations. A seller has every right to say “we’re doing nothing.” And the buyer has every right to “walk away.” Bottomline, like every negotiation, both parties need to come to terms with each other and agree to agree.
As you can see, AS IS, means nothing and everything at the same time. Sellers need to disclose what they know could be a material defect to the property and Buyers need to investigate everything they think could effect the property.
I have a client right now who just put his home up for lease. After just one day we got a prospective tenant who wants to lease the home, but they have dogs. This particular home is about ten years old and has the original carpet so it is pretty beat. There is a very small backyard with a small bit of sod and some annuals around the edges. The homeowner is concerned that the dogs might damage the backyard and/or the carpet. Well the carpet is already beat so that is a non-issue. The tenants would be putting down $5800 as a security deposit plus $500 as an additional pet deposit. The homeowner decided to turn them down and wait to see if a family without pets wants to lease it. The dog-owning tenants were ready to pay him 3K month immediately. By turning away these folks he could potentially loose 3K a month as it sits vacant, not leased. Is the homeowner missing the point? 3K immediately in the pocket would more than make up for any damage by the pets… (but really how much could it cost to put down new sod and annuals in a backyard not much bigger than a postage stamp?) The monthly loss by keeping your home vacant needs to be considered when you are a landlord.
