What’s a Fixture? Selling your House in Roseville

What’s a Fixture?  Selling your House in Roseville  

When getting ready to sell your Roseville home, you may be wondering what you can take with you when you move.  Typically, you may not remove any fixtures.  Fixtures are items attached to the house and are included with the sale.  For example, your oven, range, dishwasher, and built in microwave are attached and can’t come with you.  Light fixtures are fixtures and so are your window coverings.  Any plants or trees in the ground are fixtures and are included with the sale.

I get a lot of questions from my Roseville sellers about refrigerators, washers, and dryers.  These items are NOT considered fixtures, unless built in, and can be taken in the move.  Often these items are negotiated in the sale or used by sellers to sweeten the deal.

There are exceptions to the fixture rule.  Let’s say you spent a small fortune on your dining room chandelier and can’t bare to part with it.  There are two things you can do.  The first thing is replace it with something less expensive before you put your house on the market.  The other option is to include in the counter-offer or addendum that you will be taking the chandelier.

It’s very important to remember that unless something is obviously NOT a fixture, and you want to take it, it must be part of the real estate contract.  You and your Roseville real estate agent should make the buyer aware of your plans to remove a fixture as early as possible.  It will cause a lot of headaches if, a couple days before the house closes, you start removing fixtures.  At this point, the buyer assumes these items are included and his offer price reflects this. When in doubt, ASK your agent BEFORE removing anything so that you are protected.

As a Roseville seller, you can’t protect yourself.  Unfortunately, we live in a world of sue-happy people.  Protect yourself when selling your home by knowing the basics and working with an experienced Roseville real estate agent to safely guide you through the process.

What’s a Fixture?  Selling your House in Roseville