How clean?

After all the flurry of buying and/or selling a house, as closing and moving nears, I am often asked, how clean the house should or will be.

In the early stages of a real estate transaction, we negotiate both the close date, and the possession date; that is when the sellers must be out of the home and the buyers are entitled to the keys and possession of the property.

Even super organized people, with the best of intentions, can come up short on time at the end.  And often what "gives" is condition in which the house is left.

The sale agreement is pretty silent on this, saying only," Seller shall remove all personal property (including trash and debris) that is not a part of this transaction, and deliver possession of the property to the Buyer...".So this basically says all the "stuff" needs to be gone.  From this, we have gotten to the "standard" that a property should be "broom clean".  That is, the seller need not have done, or hired, a deep cleaning, but the place should be swept up and empty.

The reality, is the condition in which properties are left varies greatly.  Some sellers take great pride leaving their property sparkling and clean for the new buyers; either hiring professional cleaners or doing a spiffy job themselves.  Many sellers do a fine job of removing all the "stuff" and doing a quick wipe down of surfaces.  And, as you might imagine, some sellers leave all sorts of messes.

While you might generalize about pricier properties being left in better condition, you'd be wrong.  Time pressed and inconsiderate sellers are found across all price ranges.

And whether we are representing buyer or seller, we try to set the expectations of how a property should be left.  But moving is hard, and the cleaning comes at the very end.  Sometimes buyers are greeted with a mess, and given the option of taking the property as is, or waiting a day or so to give the seller a chance to clear it out.  And sometimes real estate agents, representing buyer or seller, will pitch in to make sure a property is at least broom clean.

My advice, whether you are a buyer or a seller, is to allow more time for cleaning and moving (in or out) than you think you'll need.

See Part 2 next week for information on the remedies available to the buyer.