Position Statement:
Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS® (MAAR)
A primary concern of the Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS® is a healthy housing stock. This is especially true at a time when the majority of housing in our cities and inner-ring suburbs shows increasing signs of age.
However, the association does not believe that requiring code compliance at the point of sale will effectively assist a community in maintaining a healthy, affordable housing market. Time-of-sale (a.k.a. point-of-sale) inspections affect only the small percentage of houses that are sold each year (3 to 5 percent in most areas). Most problem houses are not for sale at any given time. To increase its effectiveness, a municipality should direct its efforts at the problem properties, rather than only focus on point-of-sale inspections.
This can be accomplished by general inspection sweeps of housing exteriors, responding to individual complaints about problem properties, and setting up a revolving loan fund to assist homeowners with city maintenance requirements resulting from these inspections. Homeowners would need to qualify for these loans and could repay them when the property is sold unless the homeowner continued to live in the property for a specified time before selling the property.
Home buyers are encouraged to have the property inspected by an independent housing evaluator. More and more buyers are doing so. Most sellers complete a disclosure statement and are required by law to disclose all material facts of which they are aware that could significantly or adversely affect the buyers use and enjoyment of the property. These buyer inspections and seller disclosures alleviate the need for cities to have their own inspection ordinances.
If a municipality determines there is a need for a point-of-sale inspection program, the association would support a truth-in-housing report by a certified private inspector rather than code compliance. Any resolution of repairs based on the inspection should be private negotiation between buyer and seller at time of sale.
For more information, contact Bill Gerst at 952.988.3141 or billg@mplsrealtor.com.
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