Pre Closing Walthrough in Charlotte (Gastonia)

It hit me today how important the final walk-through is to the entire real estate buying transaction. My client had purchased a home in Gaston County, NC ... about 20 miles west of Charlotte on I85. She found a great 1925 Ranch Home in the Historic District of Gastonia. Use your imagination on what the inspection report looked like. We showed up at the home at 8:30 for the final walkthrough as we were in the home 5 days prior and no repairs had been made. I brought along a copy of the inspection report along with the repair request addendum. Slowly but surely, we checked the hvac repairs, electrical repairs, caulking repairs and all others that pertained to our mission. We noticed that the seller had overlooked caulking the exterior portion of the windows. We debated whether or not it was important enough to bring to the sellers attention at the closing table. We knew a tube of caulk would only cost about $5 at the local Home Depot so money wasn't really the issue. The issue was that my client wasn't able to move into the home for about 30 days and Charlotte has been experiencing a lot of rain over the past 2 weeks. The issue was the damage that could occur if moisture was to penetrate the trim before she could get to the task of repairing. We decided to speak with the sellers agent about this issue. The seller immediately got on the phone and contacted a handy man to get on the project ASAP. Problem solved and we closed the home in a successful manner ... everybody won as the seller sold and the buyer purchased her dream home.

I couldn't help to think about this small obstacle today and how many times I've heard horror stories about real estate transactions falling apart over something as small as missing caulk. We avoided the tragedy by politely brining this to the sellers attention and they were more than happy to oblige and hold true to their end of the bargain. It hit me how important the final walk-through is to my clients and I actually realized something as well: At my next walk-through, I may wear jeans and a t-shirt as I stained my white dress shirt checking out the chimney damper!