The various seller disclosures for both Georgia and North Carolina.
What are the must-have disclosures if you're buying or selling in the mountains of North Carolina or North Georgia? My name is Rick Andrews. I'm with Century 21 BlackBerry Realty, and today we're going to take a look at the disclosures that you either need to complete or review before you make that big purchase here in the mountains.
First, we're going to take a look at the state of Georgia. In Georgia, the first form is the seller's property disclosure. It's seven pages of a lot of questions about your home, from the year it was built to questions about any hazardous materials. It’s very comprehensive. If you're buying, you definitely want to review it. If you're selling, you should complete it before you put your home on the market.
An important point there in completing it, it just offers “yes” or “no” answers. Truthfully, we all know that sometimes it isn't yes or no. You honestly might not know the answer. If this is the case, don't check “yes,” and don't check “no.” Just leave it blank. The truth is the truth.
The next form is the seller's property disclosure if you're selling a lot of land. It's only three pages that just ask you some questions about your property.
Last in the state of Georgia, is the community association disclosure. It asks you if there is a homeowners association, how much the fees are, are there any special assessments coming in, and what they do with the money they collect.
Those are the three forms that the state of Georgia has if you're buying or selling in the mountains of northeast Georgia.
Now, let's look at the state of North Carolina. In North Carolina, they have a similar form, but they've combined the residential property disclosure with the homeowners form into one document.
It's a four-page document called the Residential Property and Owners Association form, and it asks very similar questions. What I like in particular about the North Carolina form is that you have three choices. You have a “yes”, a “no” and a “no representation”. So if you don't know the answer, check “no representation”. If you know it's yes, check “yes.” If you know it's no, check “no.”
"It's very important that you honestly complete the lead-based paint disclosure."
Every so often I get someone who checks “no representation”, meaning they have a lawyer, all the way down thinking they'll be legally safe. That's a huge mistake.
It's a huge red flag when a buyer gets a form and the seller has checked “no representation” everywhere. What is that seller trying to hide? Let your yes be yes, and let your no be no. If you truthfully don't know the answer, just check “no representation.”
A form peculiar to North Carolina is the mineral, oil, and gas rights mandatory disclosure. It asks you if you're going to separately sell their oil, gas, and mineral rights, or are they going to go with the sale of your home? It's a peculiar form to me because I've never seen anyone complete it and say that they've separated them, but I guess it may happen. Anyhow, it's a simple one-page form with six very simple questions.
Finally, in both Georgia and North Carolina, is the federal mandatory lead-based paint disclosure. If the home was built prior to 1978, there's a possibility it was painted with lead-based paint. So it's very important that you honestly complete the lead-based paint disclosure.
Again, my name is Rick Andrews. I'm the owner and broker of Century 21 Black Bear Realty. As always, if you have any questions regarding mountain real estate, please give me a call: (828) 557-9139.