The Disclosure Box That Cost a Seller Thousands

By Kendra Conyers

Kendra proudly serves as a Jesus-loving real estate agent whose life and business are guided by faith, purpose, and service. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Counseling, and she is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology.

A seller once checked a single box on a disclosure form believing it protected them. That box became the exact thing that cost them thousands, and it very nearly cost my buyer her home. This is the closing that almost fell apart, and the piece of paper that turned it around.

My buyer was purchasing a resale home only a few years old, and we were comfortable with the price. When you go under contract, you receive the seller’s property disclosure. In our state, sellers are not required to tell you much of anything, because it is a caveat emptor state. For most items, they can check yes, they can check no, or they can check no representation, which is a polite way of saying they are not telling you and you can figure it out yourself. On the gas, this seller checked no. No malfunction, nothing wrong.

Then the inspection told a different story. We received our home inspection back, and the inspector flagged a problem with the gas. The listing agent argued with me at length, insisting it had already been handled and there was nothing to worry about. Because our state permits homes to be sold as-is, the seller refused to make the repair, which the quotes placed somewhere between five and seven thousand dollars. My buyer was prepared to walk away. What made that especially painful is that she had already committed five thousand dollars in due diligence, and in our state that money is non-refundable. If she walked, she lost it.

Not disclosing and lying are two very different things. This is the distinction that saved the deal. A seller here genuinely does not have to disclose. They are allowed to check no representation and legally stay silent. What they are not permitted to do is state something false. Checking no on that gas line was not silence. It was a claim that the gas worked. If the sellers happened to know otherwise, caveat emptor no longer shielded them, because a misrepresentation is a different matter entirely.

The proof was hiding in the seller’s own paperwork. So I went looking, and I found what I needed in the last place most buyers would think to check: the seller’s inspection report from when they had purchased the home themselves. The identical gas issue was flagged on it. These sellers had not simply forgotten to mention a problem. They had documentation of it in their own files, and they checked no anyway. That single report turned my buyer’s problem into the seller’s problem.

With proof in hand, the options were simple. I sent the report to the listing agent and laid out exactly where matters stood. Because a material fact had been withheld, this was no longer about whether the sellers felt generous. They could be sued, the matter could go to the Real Estate Commission, or they could fix the issue. Both brokers-in-charge became involved, and the Commission was clear: had the seller checked no representation or left the line blank, they would have been fine. Checking no while knowing better was the error.

The final move came down to leverage. The listing agent returned with one last attempt. She agreed to repair the gas, but wanted to claw back the eight thousand dollars in closing costs already agreed upon. So I walked her through the math. Remove the closing costs and my buyer still walks, because our numbers were built around that eight thousand. Meanwhile the sellers would be back on the market carrying a defect they were now legally required to disclose, which meant amending the form and uploading the inspection for the next buyer to see. Who knew what that buyer would demand, or whether they would pay full asking as we were prepared to do. After three days of silence, at forty-seven days into the transaction, a single email arrived: the repair was scheduled. The sellers completed the roughly fifty-eight-hundred-dollar repair, honored the full eight thousand in closing costs, and we closed. The listing agent never spoke to me again, and that was perfectly fine, because my buyer got her home and she got it right.

The lesson is one I want every buyer to carry with them. A seller does not have to tell you everything, but a seller is not allowed to lie to you, and knowing the difference can be worth thousands of dollars. Please get the inspection even on a home that looks brand new, because most people skip it on newer construction assuming there is nothing to find, and that assumption is exactly where the trouble hides.

If you’re buying and you want someone in your corner who reads every form and chases down every report, pull up a chair. Call me at (910) 578-3306, email me at kendra@kendraconyers.com, or visit blog.kendraconyersandassociates.com.

I’ll make sure nobody checks a box that costs you.