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 I am interested in purchasing a home and want to remove part of the wall separating two living rooms. How do I go about this?

– Shane

  In this situation, my advice would be two-fold. First, if you want to remove a wall or part of a wall, I would have your REALTOR® write in the contract that it is contingent upon the wall destruction “being able” to take place if you are to buy the house. In other words, if the wall could not be taken out…maybe if it is a load bearing wall, you don’t want to be stuck buying the home if the wall can’t be removed.

Have your contractors check the wall first before closing on the property. Also, when/if you do buy the home, have all permits required to do whatever it is you are planning. Check with your county, town or city (their planning/permit dept.) to see what is required to start work. Depending on where you are, the consequences could vary, but you don’t want to try selling the home years later and find out with no permit and out-of-date codes, you can’t legally represent current property conditions.

Stu Barnes specializes in customer service at Barnes McQuade Realty in Raleigh, NC. Although he has experience in short sales and foreclosures, he comes from a retail background and understands people care about how they are treated durring any type of transaction.

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