Every house has them … those little things that make a house unique, sometimes good, sometimes not so good.

Ideally, every transaction would be so easy, unstressful, remarkably friendly and amicable that the seller and buyer would meet and talk about these home’s idiosyncrasies.

The Latent Gas

Much of the house runs on gas, gas provided by liquid propane. The gas range is in the kitchen, the gas fireplace is in the living room, and the liquid propane tank is about 50 feet away.

As my seller told me (and I told the buyer’s agent) – sometimes, particularly when the barometric pressure changes, the gas gets pushed out of the line from the range, and it can take a long time for the gas to make it from the tank to the range.

Imagine, if you will … you move into the house, the pressure changes before you and your family can cook the first meal, and when you finally go to cook, the gas won’t come to the range. Imagine the irritation and frustration.

What you need to do (that this buyer knew) is to 1) be patient and 2) turn on the range 3) if turning on the range doesn’t work, go turn on the gas fireplace as it has a more powerful draw than does the range … that will pull the gas to the range (and the fireplace), and you’d be able to cook.

Simple, right?

The hole in the wall

A client who told me a few years after he bought his home that he had talked to the previous owner about his plans to renovate some part of his house that would have involved one of the bathrooms.

The previous owner told him about the hole in the wall.

Apparently, behind the bathroom mirror, accessed by using suction cups to slide the mirror, was a hole in the wall. A big, somewhat useful, hole in the wall.

That my clients never would have known about had they not talked to the seller. The seller’s agent didn’t know. I, as the buyer’s agent, certainly didn’t know …

Every house has them … the sticky door, the wobbly knob, the hidden thing. These things – and the associated marks – are the things that help make a house a home.