Buying Or Selling A Home In Florida 'As-Is' - What You Need To Know!

Have you ever heard of the as-is contract for sale in the state of Florida?

Hi, I'm Andy with the Mandel Team at RE/MAX and in today's video, we're gonna be going over what the as-is contract really means. So in the state of Florida, or at least in South Florida, almost all of the sales are written on the form of the contract, it's called the as-is with right to inspect form of the contract.

What does that mean for you as a buyer or as a seller? So, as a buyer, the as-is form means that the seller is not going to be required to fix anything in the property. You will have an inspection period in the contract for you to make sure that the home, for you as the buyer, is in the kind of condition that you think it's in. Obviously, if you walk into a house and you see that the kitchen's outdated, the bathrooms are outdated, those kinds of things are going to be factored into your purchase price. But the as-is part, that really references what other things might come up during an inspection, the things that you can't visibly see, if the AC is cooling properly, there's no roof leaks that you couldn't tell, stuff like that.

As-is with the right to inspect means you have your inspection period and if you don't like the condition of the property or if you change your mind, whatever it is, you have that inspection period and you can back out of the contract. You get your money back, your deposit as a buyer. You're released from the contract. So sellers, you're not gonna be responsible for fixing anything in the property. With that being said, anything that's gonna stop any sale from happening is most likely gonna have to get fixed by the seller. Otherwise, they're gonna have a very hard time selling the property. So things that most likely have to get fixed from an inspection, if there's any roof leaks, if there's bad electrical panels or something that's going to stop the buyer from getting insurance, if there's major plumbing leaks, if the AC isn't cooling properly. Things like that, unless you're really pricing the property low and selling it to someone, a cash buyer or an investor or something like that, any of those types of issues are most likely gonna have to get fixed by the seller prior to closing.

The inspection and the as-is part is more referring to little things, like there's no GFCI outlets in the kitchen or the bathrooms, it needs a coat of paint, there's some dents in the dry wall or some of the appliances don't work.Stuff like that, that would be covered by the as-is sale, so we're really just concerned about the major items. What really ends up happening if there's something wrong with the property that needs to get fixed, you as the buyer can ask for a credit from the seller. They will give you money towards your closing costs so that you as the buyer can fix something after you close. The reason we prefer to do that, the seller is gonna be incentivized to fix things as quickly and cheaply as possible and the buyers really gonna want things to be done properly, probably by a contractor or a handyman that they choose so that they know it's done correctly because they're going to be living there. So the seller gives you a credit and you as the buyer take care of it after closing so you know that it's done correctly by your people, people that you trust. So that's how the as-is contract works.

If you have any questions on that, if you're thinking about buying or selling a home here in South Florida, give me a call, shoot me a text, send me an email. We've got your back when moving to South Florida.