Closing Day Etiquette

TorontoRealtyBlog

I went to the beach with my wife, mother, and 19-month-old daughter on Saturday, and it was great!

I managed to close a condo sale, and write this blog post in my head, as my family wished that I knew how to relax and partake in some semblance of normalcy.

Today I want to talk about what you should do when you sell your house or condo, and lock the door for the very last time.

And how come there's sand everywhere in my condo?  I barely left the beach blanket, how come sand manages to stay with you for a week?!?!

Last week, I wrote a blog post called "Open House Etiquette," where I laid out ten scenes that take place in an open house, and whether or not they're offside.  Most, as you might assume, I concluded were offside.

Most of the readers concluded that the etiquette lessons I was providing were simply a lesson in common sense.

I can't say I disagree.

So today, I figured I'd go back to the well, and provide a "To Do" list for when you are closing on your house or condo, and once again, much of this is common sense.

Now before I start, I'd like to go off on a not-so-closely-tied rant about common sense, since that is the topic of the day.

It's about common sense………….and soccer.

The World Cup is now upon us, and while I think I might have ranted about this four years ago, it bothers me so much, that I'm going to do it again.

Soccer is a beautiful game, with the most passionate and engaged fans on the planet.  It truly is the only "global" sport, and the game reaches every single country on the planet.

However, despite all this, I simply can't respect the sport, or understand how people continue to turn a blind eye to the fact that flopping around on the ground and pretending to be hurt is an accepted part of the game.

Where's the common sense in that?

Common sense would dictate that with the advances in technology over the past 10-20 years, it's no longer reasonable for a player to embellish, or straight-up fall over for no reason to try to show the referee that he was hurt.

I played soccer competitively until I was 18-years-old.  I was actually pretty good, and a better soccer player than I was a hockey player, which is rare for a Canadian kid.  Growing up, our game was very different from the professional game, as I learned when I first watched the World Cup in 1994.  I had never seen "diving" before, and watching the game with my uncles – who can remember being led into the school gymnasium in 1972 with the rest of the student body to watch Game 8 of the Summit Series, was eye-opening.  With every flop, drop, and roll of the players, my uncles went nuts, yelling at the TV, throwing their hands up in the air, and just being absolutely disgusted with the antics.

24 years later, nothing has changed in the game.

On Monday, I watched about 15 minutes of Brazil versus Mexico, and that is the last soccer I will ever watched.

This "Neymar" fellow, who apparently is a great player (but hardly a role-model or ambassador for the sport, as I'll explain) was already laying on the ground, clutching his head from all angles, as though he just got a magic bullet through the back of the neck, when a Mexican player, who had enough of Neymar's nonsense, came over and grabbed the ball from Neymar, touching his foot to Neymar's ankle in the process.

Neymar then began to roll around like a worm being burned with a lighter.

He was screaming in fake-pain, clutching every part of both of his legs.

And everybody just stood around and watched.

Why isn't that a red card?  Why isn't that an ejection?

Until a referee has the guts to kick somebody out of the game for that, nothing will ever change.

NHL hockey players put themselves through an all-out war every spring, and when their team is eliminated, we hear about who had a broken wrist and played through it, who had a separated shoulder, and on, and on, and on.

Football players routinely play through real pain, and leave everything out on the field.

Basketball, which isn't thought of as a "physical sport," has 7-foot-tall, 280-pound men throwing the full weight of their bodies up in the air, to meet the full weight of another man's body.

And here we have soccer players, who think it's "part of the game" to fall over and play dead.

I think it's shameful, and the only thing worse are the soccer apologists who say not only is it "part of the game," but that "a player who can fake at the right time and draw a call is a skilled player."

Ugh.  Nonsense.

Imagine if Roger Federer pretended to fall down and sprain his ankle every time Rafael Nadal hit the ball past him?

What if Michael Phelps fake-drowned in the swimming pool to get the race stopped when he was trailing?

WHY IS DIVING PART OF SOCCER?

It lacks common sense.

End.  Rant.

~Fin.

Okay, so you're closing on the house or condo that you just sold, and you're getting ready for the final days or even hours in the property.

What should you do?  What's the "right thing" to do?

What makes you a Mensch?

Well, let me sum it up for you – it costs ten bucks.

Ten bucks, and you can call yourself a good guy or gal.

Let me explain through the first two points, and then go on a few points more…

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1) Have the property professionally cleaned.

This is a no-brainer, and yet maybe only 40% of sellers clean the property before they leave.

It's common sense, and dare I say – common decency.

You're probably asking, "But wait a minute, you just said it costs ten bucks to be a property-selling Mensch!  Cleaning a condo costs a hundred bucks!"

True.

But in most cases, you're moving somewhere, right?  And that somewhere is a place you would also like to have cleaned?

This is a classic case of "do unto others," as spending $80 to clean your condo before you move out, will come back to you in kind when the seller of the house you're moving into spends $80 to clean that puppy too.

Even if you're not moving into a new property, like, let's say you've sold your house to move into a tent, it's still just the right thing to do.

A client of mine closed on a century-old cottage in Cabbagetown, which he and his wife truly 'cherished' even before they closed and took possession.  When they got the keys, they were shocked the condition in which the house was left.  There was garbage on the floors throughout the home, a disgusting fridge, carpets clearly not vacuumed, rotting trash under the front porch, piles of sand in the laundry room, and storage items left behind, ie. some random shelving unit they didn't throw away.

What was even more disappointing to my client was that the owner of this property owned 4-5 adjacent properties as well, and had owned the block for thirty years.  This wasn't some one-off closing where an overseas seller forgot, or didn't care enough, to have the property cleaned before closing.  This was somebody who still has a horse in the race, or a foot in the door, as an owner of multiple properties in this row of homes.  My clients were almost more upset that the owner didn't respect the house – a unique, timeless, vintage, and historical property.

In the end, unless there's a clause in your Agreement of Purchase & Sale instructing you to do so, you're under no obligation to have the property cleaned.

But I don't think that's an excuse for decency.

–

2) Leave  hand-written note, and a bottle of booze.

Here's where you see the ten bucks at work.

If you spend $85 to have your property cleaned before you move out, and the property you move into has clearly been cleaned for a similar amount of money, then spending $10 on a bottle of booze, and leaving it on the counter with a hand-written note, is how I come up with my ten-dollar figure.

You don't have to buy Dom Perignon.  Just grab a bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz if need be.  Buy the cheap 2018 stuff.  Or the 2019 if it's available!

It's not so much the taste or quality of the wine, which will likely be re-gifted, but rather the gesture.

A hand-written note, that takes 3-minutes to produce, goes a long, long way, in the eyes and hearts of new buyers.

I recognize that this doesn't apply to everybody, but if you've been living in a house for a few years, I'm sure you respect the property.  It's your home, and now it's going to be somebody else's.  Ignoring investment-properties, and/or hands-off owners, surely handing the keys over to a new owner has to mean something to you, no?

Clean the property – your home, and leave a cheap bottle of wine, and a few nice words on a piece of paper.

Dear Jenny & Stephen,
We hope you love living here as much as we have for the last five years!
We're so sad to be leaving, but knowing that we sold to really good people who will cherish the home as we have, makes it so much easier!
All the best in your new home, have a drink and celebrate!
Jake & Samantha

It's not rocket-science, folks!

–

3) Ask if they want the paint cans, case of hardwood flooring, and box of tile.

I can't tell you how many times I've been on the receiving end of this email:

Hey David!  We're in the house, everything is great so far!  Quick question – can you ask the seller if they remember the paint colour in the living room?  We're trying to match that colour through the kitchen and down the hall.  Thanks!

Was it "Inner Peach," or "Apricot Beige?"

Twilight Dreams, Arizona Canyon, Mountain Hideway, Warm Cognac, or Baked Clay?

The possibilities are endless.  And we all know that even though we learned to split the atom eighty years ago, we will never be able to "colour match" to the exact specifications of an existing paint colour.  To try, is simply to fail.

So just as "common sense" helped us with points #1 and #2, you can see how asking, "What would I want, if I were in their position?" helps with a lot of the other points on our list.

If you have paint cans from 9 months ago when you did a fresh coat of the basement rec-room and upstairs bedroom, ask the buyer if they want them left behind.

I say, "ask the buyer," because for the first thirteen years of my career, I always told sellers to leave them.  And then in early 2017, I actually had a sale not close because of a paint can, and a box of tile.  No joke.

My clients had renovated their home shortly before putting it on the market, and I told them the could leave the three paint cans and box of leftover hardwood flooring (I also frequently get asked, "Can you find out what type and style of hardwood was used on the main floor?  We put a huge gauge in the wood moving in our sofa, and we want to replace the one board!") upstairs in the unfinished attic of the house.

The buyers went nuts.

They refused to close until "proof that the leftover garbage had been removed" was provided to the buyer's lawyer.

The deal closed a day late, and I was shocked.

Live and learn, I guess.  This was the only time I had ever seen a buyer have a problem with this, but that will teach me, moving forward.

For the rest of you, think about how this is helpful to you.  Have you ever had to replace the flooring in an entire room, because you didn't know what type of existing flooring was there, and you only needed like three replacement boards?

–

4) Leave the appliance manuals behind.

If you have them, leave them.

And strangely, most people have them.

I know for a fact that up above my microwave, next to the vent, there are appliance manuals for all the appliances in my condo.  They were up there when I moved in, and seven years later, there they remain.

I don't know why I wouldn't throw them out, but I guess I don't know why I would either.

And for some odd reason, buyers love manuals!  I get asked about them all the time, just like paint colours, and types of hardwood flooring.

The most common need for a manual is with respect to warranty, although you could probably just Google the make and model too.

Manuals for electronics, or even assembly instructions can come in handy too for new buyers.

–

5) Don't play God with the lockbox and key.

Raise your hand if you wanted to visit, or "inspect" the property you purchased in the days leading up the closing, and your real estate agent told you that you can't, because there's no key?

This happens a lot.

And while I'd say it's the agent's fault a large percentage of the time (ie. either because they want to remove their precious lockbox, or they don't advise the seller to keep a key on site), it's also the seller's fault for not realizing the buyer is entitled to a visit right up until closing.

We often get in these back-and-forth's with the lawyers, where the buyer is insisting on a visit, the seller says, "I've already handed the keys over to my lawyer," and then the listing agent, seller, and seller's lawyer all offer, "If you want to do the inspection, fine, but you'll come pick up the key at the lawyer's office."

And rarely, if ever, does a buyer do that.

It's very, very simple, folks: leave a key in a lockbox right up until the day of closing.  In actual fact, this can help facilitate a smoother closing.  Once upon a time, the buyer would get the keys from the buyer's lawyer, via the seller's lawyer, via the seller.  Nowadays, why not just leave the keys in the house, leave one unit or door key in the lockbox, and release the code upon closing?

–

6) Forward your mail.

Some of you are thinking, "Who doesn't do this?"

But I assure you, the answer is, "Many."

How many times do you think I get this email:

"Hi David, can you kindly ask the new owners to keep our mail aside, and we'll come pick it up at some point this weekend?"

I have no problem helping my seller-clients; that's not the issue here.  The issue is that I don't have the contact information for the buyers.  I'd have to go through their buyer-agent, and you can see how one more step makes failure or confusion more likely.

I recently sold a house to buyers, and I got this email from the listing agent:

"Hi David, my clients have ordered something from Amazon.ca to the house and they'd like to come pick it up.  They won't be in the city until the weekend, so we're hoping your clients can take it inside and keep it for them until then?  Thanks!"

So first of all, why didn't they update their address on Amazon.ca?

But more importantly, why wouldn't they think this is an imposition?

I know I'm talked about being a Mensch, and "doing unto others" in the sections above, but this is something different.  This is asking others to make up for your laziness, because you didn't call Canada post and have your mail forwarded.

Time and time again, I find myself facilitating the collection and delivery of mail for buyers and sellers alike.

–

7) Cancel the alarm system, and/or other contracts and services.

This cuts both ways.

The nice thing to do, as with the paint cans, is to ask the buyer if they'd like to take over your alarm system monitoring, so that they can save whatever setup fee might exist.

Having said that, the seller should cancel all services and contracts associated with the house.

I had a client close on a house and receive a landscaping bill.

The sellers had moved out 6 weeks before the deal closed, but didn't tell the landscaping company, who continued to mow the lawn.  When the new owners moved in, the landscaping company continued to mow the lawn, and eventually sent them a bill – with the balance owing.

Now there are a few problems here, and questions as well.

Is it the responsibility of the sellers to pay for lawn care when they've moved out?  Maybe, but probably not.  It would be nice for them to keep up the maintenance of their asset right up until closing, and not simply let the grass go brown.  But either way, if they do have the landscaper show up for work, they're supposed to pay for it; not just dump it on the new owner.

Secondly, if the landscaping company continues to mow the lawn, after closing, are the new buyers on the hook?  Legally, no.  Practically, yes.

The sellers should have thought of this, just as any seller should think about the alarm system, or cable and internet, and ensure that they've notified Toronto Water, Hydro, Enbridge Gas, et al about the change in ownership.

–

Geez, this thing got really long, really fast.

Maybe my epic soccer rant had something to do with that…

The name of the game today, once again, is "common sense."

All seven of these points relate back to some level of common sense, and yet the issues arising therein are, themselves, extremely common.

Just as the saying goes: "The simplest answer is usually correct," I might also add that "The most common problems arise from the least-important issues."

I feel like having to tell somebody to pay $80 to clean their $750,000 condo before closing is a wasted breath, but as you read above, it usually isn't…

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