It should go without saying, but in a real estate transaction always get every detail in writing.

During his walkthrough, a buyer (not a client of mine) noted that a couple of small windows on the beautiful French doors were broken. And he asked that the DirectTV satellite dish be removed from the roof.

Originally his agent said he’d put these requests in writing and get the sellers to sign off on it. But then he changed his mind and said he’d take care of the window and that the sellers would call to get the satellite dish removed.

Based on my initial warning in this post, I’m sure you know what happened. After closing the agent told the buyer to take care of the window and just bill him for it, leaving the buyer to spend his own time fixing it or looking for a handyman to do it.

And while the sellers called DirectTV to remove the dish, DirectTV said it wasn’t their responsibility. So now the buyers are stuck with either having an unsightly satellite dish on their roof or having to hire someone to remove it.

Again in a real estate transaction, or any other financial deal, get all of the details in writing.