For Sale By Owner: What Are the Disclosure Laws When Selling Your Home by FSBO?

Selling your home For Sale By Owner? You still absolutely have to disclose known issues to a buyer. "Disclose, disclose, disclose" is a real saying in this business for a reason, lack of disclosure is the number one reason sellers get sued after closing.

Hi, I'm Tanja Odzak, Realtor with eXp Realty, helping people sell and buy homes right here in the East Bay for the last 10 years.

Without an agent, you'll need to access the California Department of Real Estate disclosure forms yourself and fill them out thoroughly. These forms reveal known material or legal defects, and California requires quite a lot of them. Even something fixed in the past still needs to be disclosed, anything ever added, repaired, replaced, or modified. If anything changes with the house while you're already in contract, the disclosures need to be updated too.

If a buyer's inspection turns up new issues and the deal falls through, you're legally required to disclose those newly found items to the next buyer as well. California law requires disclosure of material facts, past flooding, foundation issues, termite damage, and more, that could affect a buyer's decision, plus certain neighborhood facts that could affect desirability.

I'm Tanja Odzak, and I've sold over $100 million worth of homes with a decade of experience in the East Bay. There's a lot more to disclosures than most sellers expect. Let's talk through whether FSBO is really the right fit for your situation.