By Constance Rigney, October 3, 2024
Picture it—The day you are moving in to your new dream home. You arrive with your neatly packed and organized boxes, perhaps a moving truck filled with your prized possessions, and you’re ready to step in to your fresh new home and make it your own. You walk in the door, a smile on your face, take a look around and not believing what you’re seeing, take a second look around……wait…what is all this stuff?!!
It doesn’t happen very often, but it does happen, and it’s not usually a fun surprise. Items that you don’t want, and certainly did not agree to, get left behind in your new home. It could be a well-meaning seller that thought they were being “helpful”, or sometimes it’s overwhelmed sellers that just couldn’t fathom removing another item from the house or their heads might actually explode. It’s almost always in owner occupied homes, as vacant, staged homes have already usually been cleaned out and prepared for a new owner.
This is one reason we usually advocate for a walk-through of your new digs a few days prior to closing, just to be sure that all items have been removed before this house (and all of its contents) become your property.
If we do find that personal property has been left behind after closing, your buyer’s agent will advocate for the seller to be responsible for removing the items and help make arrangements to get those items promptly removed. Weather it’s bulky metal furniture that’s hidden in the attic because the sellers don’t want to pay to haul it (too bad), a living room full of old furniture because the sellers thought you might find it lovely (you don’t), or chickens (true story), we’ll make sure that you’re not stuck with anything you don’t want.
And, on the bright side, sometimes some real gems get left behind—some mint condition vinyl, the window coverings you always wanted, glass bottles from the 1800s, or a small thoughtful gift. That’s always much better than the chickens.
Constance Rigney
Broker | OR & WA
She/Her
What I love about the field of real estate is that essentially, it’s about dreams and possibilities. It’s about finding a space that can support the life you are envisioning and crafting...
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- T: 503-860-4293
- constance@livingroomre.com
