You have moved out of your home, but the property isn’t going to close and be transferred to the new buyer for another month or so. You want to save a few bucks. So, what do you do? You turn off the utilities. You cancel the trash pickup and the water service. You tell the pool service to take a hike.
It’s July. With no water service, the landscaping is going to go south fast (and I’m not talking about a Mexican vacation.) When a prospective buyer makes an offer on a home, they make an offer based on the condition of the property at the time that the offer was written. What is the buyer going to say when he comes back and all the plants are dead and the pool is green? How is the buyer going to complete his property inspection you cannot turn on the lights or flush the toilet?
If the property does not look the same as when the offer was made, the buyer has a right to cancel the transaction. Doing that would be very disappointing.
So, as you can see, the key is to leave the utilities on whenever possible. If your agent forgot to discuss that with you, that’s a serious bummer and it may cost you some cash. If you turn off the utilities and then have to turn them on again, there may be a surcharge—money you could’ve saved if you would have left them on in the first place.
If you are really strapped (perhaps you are in the midst of a short sale and times are tough), the best thing to do is to discuss this problem with your listing agent. Tell your listing agent that you cannot afford to maintain the utilities and the property. Strategize with the listing agent (and perhaps even with the buyer and the buyer’s agent) in order to find a happy medium. You may be surprised. Another pool party may be in your future.
Originally posted at http://servingsandiegocounty.com