My client did not want her TV. He wanted to be able to put his where hers was, without having to call an electrician to do so.

I agree with you on curtains, but the Purchase and Sale contracts in the Seattle Area do not. Curtains go with the house here. I thought that was quite odd, but unless you write an exclusion in the contract here (the same as you would for a chandelier) the boilerplate transfers curtains with the house. In most other areas the rods are attached and a curtain that slips off a rod is not included.

I have never seen a stove not be automatically included…anywhere. I have never seen a seller leave with his stove/oven in the moving truck.

Bookshelves, if built into the wall, are clearly part of the house.

Optional appliances are usually washers, dryers and refrigerators, unless the refrigerator is built in, not stove or dishwasher.

But the real test of “is it attached” is INTENT at time of attachment. Generally, if you have to go get tools to get it off, that action causes you to pause. If you can lift it up off of the nail or picture hanger, then the nail is attached and the picture is not. The arguments I’ve seen regarding this are not pictures, but mirrors. “Seller took the mirror over the bathroom sink”.

What if you bought a house boasting “a theater room”. Might you expect it to still be “a theater” with the projector and screen in place? More and more, people are creating “theater rooms” on the basement level and promoting that as a selling feature of the home.

If “theater room” is noted on the flyer as a selling feature of the home, I would think the buyer would be right to think the room would be “a theater” when they took possession. But then is a bedroom not a bedroom without a bed

Every buyer and seller will have differences of opinion on various items. The contract pins down the specifics. Ours says “curtains, drapes and all other window treatments”. It also says “installed television antennas (Direct TV?) “installed electrical fixtures” is the vague one. If you can unplug it and walk out with it (like a refrigerator) it is not an installed electrical fixture. If you have to call a serviceman to de-install it, then it is installed. If you have to turn the power off in the house to “un-plug” it, then it’s likely attached.

In the case of the flat screen TV noted in this post, a serviceman was called to “de-install” it and it was wired throught the walls and not simply plugged in. One might not have to remove it before putting the house on market, but they should “de-install” it and create a method of use where it is simply “plugged in” by creating the appropriate plug-in outlets.

Don’t tell me you’ve ever bought a house where the seller took the stove with him. I’ve never, ever seen that. Though I’m told that in Europe, people leave with their kitchen cabinets.

It’s great to put your own stamp on a place. Reality is that many people buying condos, especially cheap ones, can barely afford the cash they need to close and move in. They can’t afford super efficient and quiet appliances before they move in.

So if you don’t want them, let the seller know that when you make the offer. You might get the place cheaper with no appliances depending on whether or not the seller can use them where they are going.

Agents almost always tell the seller of a condo that they have to leave the appliances, especially if it is at a first time buyer price.

What happened is that the wall did not have outlets originally. The house was builit in 1986. So when the current owner had the flat screen TV installed, the installer didn’t bother with a plate for the cable. Just hooked it right to the TV.

The original cable was on a plate in the corner of the room for a stand up TV over by the fireplace and not for a flat screeen on a wall. So if the buyer has no flat scree TV, it would be appropriate to remove all of it and put the wall back to the way it was when the house was built.

The owner simply called the same guy back to come and de-install the flat screen on the wall leaving the cable back in the corner by the fireplace the way it was before they bought the flat screen.

An important thing to remember is that most people do what they do with really good reason and no intent to harm. That they didn’t do what the buyer wanted, is no reason to be “pissed”. People are just doing the best they can with these details.

Leaving a home you have lived in for 16 years in 3 weeks time is no easy feat!

People should not be quick to get upset with sellers. They really are doing the best they can most times. Buyers who only think of themselves and don’t put themselves in the other person’s shoes can get unreasonable.

I once had a buyer of my own home who wanted to come back in my house every time the temperature when up 2 degrees as to weather to check the air temp in the home from the air conditioner. I had theree kids. I had to pack. Finally I said enough is enough already. Go obsess about something else please and leave me alone.

He did this because I said I never used the air conditioner. I just don’t use them much. With three kids runing in and out of the yard, it’s easier to not run the air conditioner than to keep telling them to close the door. Plus I liked to hear what the kids were doing out there.

I find that buyers are way to suspicious of a seller’s motivation for every little thing. Particularly first time buyers. It ain’t gonna be perfect. No house is. That doesn’t mean the seller is concealing something. They just don’t feel the same way about things needing to be so perfect. Nor does the buyer after they have lived there for a few years.

I went off topic there…