Absolutely you must disclose the existence of the stains. It is not reasonable to expect buyers to lift up all your rugs to check the condition of the flooring.

How would you feel if YOU were buying the house and didn't find out about the stains until the walk through? IMO, it will cause a HUGE problem and may even kill the deal.

As a buyer I would feel like you tried to hide it. I would put it in the disclosure and leave the rugs. This way I would know about it and would lift the rugs to see if it would bother me or if I would just have rugs at the same place anyways. Yes a buyer should do due diligence and lift the rugs, but when you do and it isn't mentioned/disclosed somewhere you wonder what else the seller is hiding.

Read the thread large item missing thread about the walk through. In this case the buyer still closed, but you could get somebody that wouldn't. Then you'd be out the time off the market and the moving and still have a house for sale.

In my opinion they could have lifted up the carpets and checked for stains but my Agent seems to think I should leave the rugs or fix the floors.

Thats unreasonable. Should they have rearranged all your furniture to make sure there were no damage to the walls or the floors under the furniture? Put yourself in their position. If you went thru the walk thru and then saw the stains, would you feel like someone tried to pull a fast one on you? Do unto others!

Possible the areas under the rugs are not stained, but rather the exposed areas have faded from the sun.

The reason I mention this is to pose the question: Is this then part of the average aging one would expect to find and therefore not a defect one needs to disclose?

graywings - I would as a seller still disclose that as I would want the buyer to trust me. I would not want to leave anything that could cause a buyer to want to pull out of closing or re-negotiate at the end.

Wow, I am impressed with all the honest sellers here. Unfortunately, when we bought our current house, we did not have the ones who disclosed stains on the floor. So we only did see during the final walk-through that some of the carpet covered by an area rug or plants was stained uncleanable or even had a huge hole from overwatering plants. We sucked it up, though, thinking we missed to check for that at the inspection and also being aware that we did NOT by a brandnew house but one that has been lived in. Although we would have loved to have a seller who would let us know before the sale, I think you cannot expect everything to be brandnew if you do not buy a new house. And yes, about the hole (now covered with a piece of the same carpet and another plant) I would inform potential buyers but certainly not about every stain in the house...

Small stains on carpets, worn areas, scratches in wood etc are normal wear and tear that should be expected when buying an existing home. Missing chunks of floor???? That is over the top.

Small stains on carpets, worn areas, scratches in wood etc are normal wear and tear that should be expected when buying an existing home.

True, but I'd still expect a seller to leave those things as visible as possible.

I once almost bought a house that I thought had hardwood floors. Turns out, the house had hardwood corridors and borders! The center of each major room was a recessed area with carpet padding, and the owners' gorgeous Oriental rugs covered them up! The owners had elected to save money by not installing hardwoods under their rugs.

I absolutely felt that had been misrepresented and backed out immediately and completely.

Sweeby..I've actually looked at two different homes like that!! I never got to the point of making an offer on either, but the owners of both had disclosed that the hardwoods did not extend under the area rugs. It just confused me that people did that!

haha. Not helpful to the op, but this reminded me of when we bought our current house. The upstairs floors were painted and when we came in for walk through, we saw that someone had actually painted around the rug area in one room, leaving a rectangle of floor the old color! At the time, we thought it was funny...

We bought our first home two years ago. The sellers did not disclose that the hardwoods in both the living room and the dining room were stained and damaged. The also did not disclose that the cellar leaks every time it rains (they claimed it leaked once). We did hire a reputable inspector, but these things were not discovered. During the walk-through the day before closing, we discovered the badly damaged floors. We tried to negotiate a deal, but they refused claiming they already made too many concessions to us. Well, we were stuck with no place to live so we went ahead with the purchase. I feel like it was bait and switch. We tell everyone we know how un-honest the sellers realtor was. We will certainly be more careful in the future.

"We tell everyone we know how un-honest the sellers realtor was."

Seller didn't disclose & inspector didn't find.

Aren't you afraid the Realtor will sue you for libel or slander or defamation or lying or something?

I can't see how a hidden defect the owners didn't disclose is the Realtor's fault.
I can see bad-mouthing the owners. But do you really think they told their Realtor about the hidden damage and were advised to keep quiet?

I agree, don't blame the listing agent for your bad experience.

Even in jurisdictions where there are disclosure laws, as a buyer I'd consider the only rule to be caveat emptor.

When I buy an old home I routinely expect to find lots of hidden damage, faulty components and rotten diy renovations that caused more damage than anything else. I've never been disappointed!