an appliance broke a few weeks before closing of a home (sale, apartment)

[polapoll]

We are due to close on the sale of our apartment in a few weeks and just a few days ago, our dishwasher broke. We had a repairman come look at it and it's going to cost about 500 dollars to replace all the parts. Our agent said to just wait till what the buyers say at closing but I feel like I should let them know in advance to see if they want credit from us or want it fixed before closing. I feel like that would be the ethical thing to do-- but from what I'm gathering from our agent, that would make me a chump. It would be great to have feedback! Thank you in advance.

[flyonpa]

you can probably replace it for less then $500.

Home Depot has them for <$300

[Marc Paolella]

They bought a house with a working dishwasher. It is up to you to provide that at closing. Common decency, regardless of absurd statements by your agent.

[macrodome2]

As the previous poster said, you'll have to provide a working dishwasher. If a new dishwasher is under $300, I'd go with that. If you prefer to go to closing without addressing the issue, at least bring a couple of estimates on what it would cost to replace or fix. That way you'll have something concrete and an amount for the credit.

We sold a house on LI a long time ago and the buyers came to the closing with some complaint that they found in the inspection report that could have been addressed before closing. We ended up having to give them some monetary concession, but it certainly left a bad taste because I never knew if we gave up too much to move the transaction along as we never had a chance to really address it.

[hrjersey]

Put yourself in the buyers place. What would you want the "seller" to do. It sounds like your agent is hoping they wont catch it during the final walk through. That is just sleazy if that's the case. I would bring it up at closing if they don't. If the dishwasher was older I would offer a few hundred dollars at closing since they might have needed or been planning to change it anyway. If it was newer and high end then you can wait so see what the buyers say when you tell them.

My house came with a jacuzzi which wasn't working at closing. The seller had not gotten any estimates for fixing it so we put $500 in escrow at closing.

[TonyStarksNJ]

what a pos agent. Replace the dishwasher.

[Jingming]

Dont listen to your agent. Show common courtesy and let the buyers know. You certainly won't be a chump in this situation

[ultraviolet3]

I would go to Home Depot and get an estimate for how much it costs to replace / install a working dishwasher. Let's say that amount is $300. Go to the buyers and tell them that the old one is busted and you're willing to either 1) Replace it with this new $300 machine, or 2) offer them a credit of $300 at closing that they can put toward a better machine if they so wish. Let them make the decision. They might want a higher end machine than the cheapest one Home Depot has to offer.

Good luck.

And, I agree, your agent is a slimeball.

[Retriever]

Originally Posted by ultraviolet3

I would go to Home Depot and get an estimate for how much it costs to replace / install a working dishwasher. Let's say that amount is $300. Go to the buyers and tell them that the old one is busted and you're willing to either 1) Replace it with this new $300 machine, or 2) offer them a credit of $300 at closing that they can put toward a better machine if they so wish. Let them make the decision. They might want a higher end machine than the cheapest one Home Depot has to offer.

Good luck.

And, I agree, your agent is a slimeball.

Cheap dishwashers, in addition to doing only a so-so job, tend to be incredibly noisy. I know that I wouldn't want to have to live with one of those low-end devices, and--more than likely--the buyer would also not like it.

Giving the buyers an option is an excellent idea.
Listening to the advice of your realtor is not a good idea--unless you would like to have bad karma following you for the rest of your life.

And, please make sure that you post some relevant comments on Yelp, or other sites, regarding the really scummy attitude displayed by your realtor. Other prospective clients should be aware of what an unethical low-life he really is.

[DPolo]

I would have 2 options:

Do exactly as you say contact the people and tell em that it broke and offer them a prepaid visa card for a reasonable amount, say $300, so that they can choose the new appliance that they want. Get some sort of a receipt from them, that says that they accepted the card.


Pretend like you have not noticed that the appliance broke.

There is a legal issue, is the paperwork for the apartment list appliances?