The Final Walk Through - What it is. Why it's Important. When it is done.

The Final Walk Through

The Final Walk Through. Let’s talk about what it is. Why it is important. And when it happens.

Hey it’s Jeff Chubb, welcome to the channel. To learn more about real estate then don’t forget to click the subscribe and like button. And if you want to talk Real Estate mano ye mano… Then find my info in the description below!

The final walk through is an essential step of the home buying and selling process.

So, what is it? The final walk through is just that. It is a time when a buyer walks through a property that they are purchasing to verify that they are receiving the property in the promised condition and there is no debris left behind.

When does it happen? The final walk through generally happens the day of or the day before closing. The reason that the final walk through happens so close to closing is that the buyer owns any and all issues that happen between the actual walk through and when they have closed.

Why is it important? This is an actual example that happened to me. We had a closing scheduled for Thursday. My client moved out of the house over the weekend with the last day of them being in the property on Sunday night with no issues and the property ready to be delivered in “broom swept” condition.

The buyer had scheduled the final walk through on Wednesday night. They showed up and started walking around the house when they noticed some water. They opened the basement door to find the basement literally full of water. Sometime between Sunday night and Wednesday night, a pipe burst in the second-floor bathroom. Traveled down from the second floor through the first floor and into the basement. If this was a car, the equivalent of this would be the house being totaled if you will. You are ripping this house down to the studs due to the extensive water damage and mold. You are replacing all systems in the property. This is extensive damage!

Now, lets play out this scenario. Say if the buyers did their final walk through on Monday night and the pipe burst Tuesday morning. The buyers then went to closing on Thursday morning and showed up to their new home with the movers in the driveway on Thursday afternoon. Believe it or not, those buyers now own this problem.

Now this is an extreme scenario which again… Literally happened to me. I was on the seller side in this case. Most scenarios over the years have been situations where sellers left behind some junk. I have had a couple situations where sellers have left behind A LOT of junk. I have been on both the buying and selling side of this situation! Another common issue is paint. It is a pain to get rid of. Many times, a seller thinks they are doing a buyer a favor in leaving their pink paint behind… But they aren’t. A seller needs to ask if the buyer wants the paint or tools they are leaving behind.

So, what happens if there are junk issues. Well normally either a holdback or credit is given to the buyers. A holdback is where the closing attorney will hold an amount in excess of what is estimated to get the issue resolved and then will release those funds once it has been confirmed that the situation has been taken care of.

Many times, it is us calling a junk removal company to do quick work and getting the property vacant and, in that broom swept condition. These situations have cost many hundreds to thousands of dollars depending on the amount of junk left behind.

By the way, we use the terminology broom swept condition as the definition of “clean” can be debated between any two parties. It’s hard to debate what broom swept means.

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