If you’re selling your home or moving into a new one, you might be wondering what you can take with you, or what you should expect your new home to have, especially when it comes to appliances and other fixtures.
The general rule in real estate is if you were to pick up and shake the house, anything that falls out goes with the seller. Paintings and other artwork, wall-mounted TVs, furniture and free-standing outdoor decor will go with the seller.
Kitchen appliances like refrigerators or microwaves that aren’t free-standing will stay with the house because they’re considered fixtures in the home. It’s more rare for a seller to want to take their fridge with them, especially because more likely than not, there will be a new fridge waiting for them at their next home.
Things can get tricky though when it comes to something like laundry machines or custom light fixtures.
Sellers may want to keep custom fixtures like unique chandeliers or window treatments precisely because they are custom, or they may prefer to leave them if they fit specifically in that home and wouldn’t translate well to a new home. Laundry machines do typically stay with a home, but a seller may want to take them if they’re brand new.
Whether a seller is ok with leaving everything except their furniture and artwork, or if they want to take several light fixtures, laundry machines and their brand new built-in coffee machine, what’s important is to spell all this out in a real estate contract. Through their agents, buyers and sellers will decide what stays and what goes, and it will be written down and officially agreed to with signatures from both parties. Some negotiation may be necessary if there are opposing preferences, but a compromise can often be reached. For example, if a seller insists on taking their custom chandelier with them, the buyer can stipulate that another chandelier must take its place.
