You’ve bought a resale home in Ontario and you’re now probably waiting 60-120 days for it to close. But, now what? Can I see the house again? I really want to take measurements and show it to my family.
Am I allowed to do this?
The short answer is yes. If you’ve negotiated the right to revisit the property into your agreement of purchase and sale.
Don’t stress too much about this though. It’s a standard clause and your realtor will include one. Now, not all realtors really push this (they definitely should), so if yours hasn’t mentioned anything, it’s a good idea to bring it up.
What is a Revisit Exactly?
Again, a revisit happens once you’ve bought a property and are waiting for the closing date. I always work in at least two revisits into an agreement for my clients.
The first revisit is generally used by people to take measurements, get a better idea of the space to visualize what furniture they’ll be buying or often times to check up on work that was agreed to be fixed by the seller.
Here are some things that a revisit are not meant for:
- Bringing both sets of extended families who inevitably make snide comments on everything and act like they’re experts in real estate because they bought a home 20 years ago.
- Bringing in a set of contractors to give you quotes.
- Bringing in any type of inspector to go over things again.
Technically the only people allowed to be in the home for a revisit are the buyer(s) and their real estate agent. But, in reality, most listing agents and sellers will let you bring a parent or a friend but keep the number to no more than two people and you should be fine.
The second revisit is normally used a couple of days before closing. Basically you’re going there just to make sure the place is in one piece! If there are issues you then have a couple of days to contact your lawyer and have them sort it out. This is a visit a lot of people skip but I have my clients do them no matter what.
And here’s why…
The Revisit from Hell
I’ll never forget the story of a client of mine who, with another agent, didn’t do a second revisit to the property shortly before closing.
On closing day, the home closes and he receives the keys from his lawyer. He’s got everything on his truck and at around 5pm shows up at his new home to move in. Except there’s just one tiny problem. When he opens the door he sees that the sellers are right in the middle of their dinner!
I’m not making this up. For some unknown reason the sellers didn’t think they had to move out on closing day. So there they are right in the middle of a huge meal with the entire place still full of boxes. On top of that they had taken away light fixtures that were meant to stay and left live wires just dangling from the ceiling!
Needless to say the buyer is furious. He tells them they have to leave but the family refuses. He basically had to call the police to force them to leave as they were technically trespassing at that time.
So, yes, always do a second revisit.
Now, that’s a bit of a horror story and doesn’t normally happen but it does happen unfortunately and you don’t want to be part of a terrible statistic.
Final Thoughts
You can ask for 2-3 revisits in an agreement and you won’t typically get any pushback (some might have an issue with three if it’s a short closing).
You also need to make sure that you give the seller proper notice (this should be spelled out in your agreement).
Just make sure you’re not using these visits to do due diligence. They are not meant for that. That should all be done during the conditional period. The revisit is meant to help make your transition into the home smoother and to ensure the seller is holding up their end of the bargain – including moving out!
