Perception Vs. Reality

Yesterday I decided to leave the pickles on my Hamburger for the first time since I was a toddler. It was pretty good--way better than I remembered.

It's healthy to question everything, especially in Real Estate. After signing at the title company, a seller disconnected the water softener / filtration system and as the Buyer walked through, he pointed out where the system used to live, and how it was now a gap in the plumbing and the water was shut off. The Seller was military, and has brought this system with him to three different houses he had bought in other states, and took it with him to no objections from those respective Buyers. We all made assumptions. The Seller assumed this was okay, and didn't ask me to write it into the contract before-hand. I assumed that these things are part of the house, and we didn't write them into the Chattel List along-side the appliances. The Buyer assumed mechanical and water systems come with the house.

To oppose what I just said above, I find that trust goes a long way toward a smooth transaction, also.

So the question is, should the Buyer have written the water-softener in to the contract? Should the Seller have written it out? If we start putting fixtures, mechanical and water systems in the chattel list, where does it end? We could break the entire house down into its components and systems, until the house is only a sum of its parts, and no longer a home. We don't put value on the nails in the studs. That's not what I'm in this business for.