Selling your home AS-IS in LA – what does it ACTUALLY mean?

Homes in Louisiana are sold “as is with a waiver of warranty and redhibition rights”

“I’m selling the house AS IS! I am not making ANY repairs!” is usually what I hear sellers jumping in quick to say during a listing presentation. This statement is usually in response to hearing somewhere along the lines that homes are sold as is in Louisiana. And yes, this statement holds some truth, but it’s missing a part:

Homes are sold as is – AFTER THE ACT OF SALE. 

You sign a disclosure document stating just this.   This statement does NOT mean that your buyer won’t ask you to make some repairs in lieu of deficiencies they found through their inspection period. 

What is DOES mean, is that after the act of sale, you are not warranting anything in the home. The buyer can not come back and ask you to make repairs after the act of sale. 

Now, If you hide some sort of defect, or the fact that it has flooded etc, you could be responsible if not disclosed properly. But that’s a whole other blog for another day. Just remember: Always disclose! =) 

During the contract process, the buyer will do inspections, if they chose to, and they can ask the seller to either make repairs or ask for money from deficiencies. 

Now, a seller can absolutely say no to all repair request. 

If a seller says no, then the buyer will have the opportunity to move forward to the act of sale or cancel the contract.

Depending on what the repair request is, it may interest the seller to make some accommodations in an attempt to prevent the buyer from canceling the sale.

Every contract and inspection response request is a unique situation so it is hard to predict outcomes. Always consult with your REALTOR for advice on how to handle inspection responses. 

I had a first time home buyer who has been looking at homes for about 2 months or so. We came across a home that wasn’t in her normal search parameters but we went to see it and she loved it.  The home had been on the market for over 30 days, not necessarily a long time but it wasn’t exactly a fresh new hot listing either.

My client wrote an offer, after some negotiations, we came to an agreement. The agent relayed to us that the seller was pretty adamant about not making any repairs. We understood but my client still had every right to do inspections and ask for repairs.

Inspections were over all good, but there were some minor things the buyer was concerned about because this was her first home so we submitted an inspection response asking for a few things to be repaired. The listing agent came back with that the seller still would not make any repairs. He kept saying he was selling the “as-is.”  Ultimately, this rubbed my buyer the wrong way, so she decided to cancel the contract. If the seller had been somewhat accommodating and made at least some of the repairs, I was confident my buyer would have moved forward. So would could have cost the seller $500-1000 in some repairs, ultimately cost him the contract. I am not sure how long it stayed on the market, but my buyer ended up finding another home she loved even more.

Selling a home is stressful, and ideally no one wants to make repairs for things they have most likely been living with for a while now. Sometimes buyers ask for small things but it is just part of the process. But in some situations, it is best to spend the couple hundred dollars making a repair than risking losing a contract and now having to disclose definciences found in the inspection report.

So just a reminder – all in all, Yes in Louisiana, you are selling a home AS IS – but after the act of sale. 

If you would like to see a copy of As Is Disclosure or Waiver of warranty and redhibition rights document, see here.

Any questions about this?? Feel free to email me at robyn@robynsbruno.com