Real estate agent: Upon selling a home, the sellers are legally entitled to remove any items that are not permanent ...

Naz on November 12, 2014

The real estate agent's conclusion is: "sellers who will be keeping the appliances are morally obliged either to remove them before showing the home or to indicate in some other way that the appliances are not included."

Why? Because, sellers are legally entitled to remove any items that are not permanent fixtures, and--legally--large appliances like dishwashers are not permanent fixtures; however, many prospective buyers of the home usually assume that large appliances in the home would be included with its purchase.

We are looking for the principle that would strengthen the argument.

Answer choice (A) states: "If a home's sellers will be keeping any belongings that prospective buyers of the home might assume would be included with the purchase of the home, the sellers are morally obliged to indicate clearly that those belongings are not included."

We know that many prospective buyers are likely to assume that large appliances in the home are included with the purchase of a home. So, if answer choice (A) is valid, the sellers should be morally obliged to either remove the appliances before showing the home or indicate in some other way that the appliances are not included, which is the conclusion of the argument, i.e. answer choice (A) justifies the real estate's argumentation.

Answer choice (D) states: "A home's sellers are morally obliged not to deliberately mislead any prospective buyers of their home about which belongings are included with the sale of the home and which are not."

The real estate agent's argument does not touch upon sellers DELIBERATELY misleading prospective buyers. The agent specifies that though sellers are legally entitled to remove large appliances, because some prospective buyers might assume that the large appliances are included in the home, sellers should--in some way--make it known that they aren't.

Whether or not a seller is morally obliged to not DELIBERATELY mislead any prospective buyer is of no relevance to us. The argument deals with sellers not indirectly misleading a buyer that large appliances are included in the sale of a house.

Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.