real estate, north and south

The past few months have been an adventure on a number of levels. One of those levels is the differences in how real estate is done in the Bay Area vs. the Inland Empire.

• In the Bay Area staging is big. As we know from our own experience. In the Inland Empire it is pretty much laughed at.
• Up here we, as seller, paid for termite, house, and roof inspection. Down there the seller paid for the termite inspection only. We had to pay for our own house inspection.
• Up here it is common to include the washer-dryer and refrigerator with the house, as we did. Down there it isn’t. We are getting a fridge with the house, but we’ll need to buy a new washer and dryer.
• Up here our house was sold as-is. Down there, our realtor requested the seller fix the defects noted by the inspector.
• The deposit up here is expected to be about 3%. The deposit we made down there was a token amount, less than 1%
• Up here our listing realtor communicated with the buyer’s realtor by email and phone. Down there our realtor hand carried our offer to the listing realtor. (Though this is probably as much matter of local geography as it is of regional differences.)

In a nation we often think of as having become homogenous, regional differences do, in fact, exist.