Hidden Expenses When Moving Homes Quickly

Being a responsible seller pays, especially in a market where the vendor selling a property in Malta or Gozo is highly relied upon. 

Most often, a vendor selling a property may well become your most resourceful and valuable assistance in getting you settled quicker in your new home. However, this is not always the case especially if you have purchased a property quickly or the seller wants to sell his home in less than 90 days. Thanks to this blog, here are two unexpected expenses a seller might experience when moving into a home quickly. 

Hidden expenses when moving quickly

Moving into and looking at a house in its bare state after the previous owners struggled to remove their possessions quickly can be stunningly shocking and disappointing. 

Throughout the years of operating in the real estate industry, it wasn’t the first time that we, at Exclusive by RE/MAX, heard sellers complain that previous owners who sold their home quickly had apparently whitewashed walls in a slapdash manner prior to viewing or painting around furniture without taking the furniture away from the walls. 

That was not all. In other cases, owners also removed a TV aerial that the buyer wasn’t planning to replace or they took all the clothing lines from the roof and left broken furniture. 

What does a buyer expect of a seller? 

If you are selling your property in Malta, it pays to be honest about things that need fixing around a house to be sold. Remember that a disgruntled buyer who discovers a hidden agenda about a property will more likely sue a seller rather than settle for unwelcome and uncalculated costs. 

Discovery of hidden costs

Most hidden agendas of a property for sale in Malta or Gozo translate into hundreds if not thousands of euros in restructuring costs. Most times, these were never considered part of the equation within which the purchase was made ourselves. 

These are minor things in a long list, but nothing could compare to the eventual discovery made some years down the line, when the seller finds a deviously hidden mishap which has been divulged before the sale. Had a ghost come with the house, for sure, the seller would have not felt so deceived and let down. 

Explaining issues before a sale

It is so much better for a seller to explain things like what the neighbourhood has to offer, where one can find a reliable and cost-effective maintenance provider in the area, how often the ivy in the garden requires pruning and how to keep the fish in the pond happy and healthy before selling your property exclusively. Simple things translate into so much avoidance of frustration, wasted time and wasted money.

Purchasing property with appliances

If the buyer of your property in Malta is also purchasing the appliances, take the trouble of leaving behind each appliance’s handbook if you still have it, plus guarantee papers and other related purchase history information. These may come in handy if an appliance eventually needs maintenance or the replacement of some gadget or two. 

Tell the buyer about the quirks and particularities of your property – explain how the last step on the staircase is a tat higher than the rest; how the garage door needs that extra push to close securely; how the spare batch of keys is missing a key to the garden gate; how the light in the living room will not work if the one in the bathroom is switched on. 

Share the electrical layout plans – you won’t need them once you’ve left and they may be so precious once the new owners decide to re-wire a room. Don’t be afraid to bargain with possible buyers but do it nicely – compromise, give and take, and between your goodwill and your agent’s assistance, you are more than likely to find a safe middle way to have both parties happy. And the happier the buyer is, the more likely are you to add him/her/them to your ‘nice people’ list!