As-is sale
An as-is sale means the seller will make no repairs and the buyer takes the property in its present condition.
It is the standard on almost every distressed transaction, and it is narrower than most buyers assume.
What it does#
Limits the seller's obligation to repair. The buyer cannot come back after the inspection with a repair list and expect the seller to address it.
That is all it does by itself.
What it does not do#
It does not remove the inspection contingency. That is a separate term. A buyer can inspect an as-is property and, where the contingency permits, withdraw based on what they find.
The distinction matters: as-is constrains the remedy (no repairs), not the right to investigate.
Where a contract removes the inspection contingency as well, the buyer has given up both. Those are two separate concessions and should be treated that way.
It does not waive the non-waivable disclosures. In Minnesota the general seller's disclosure under Minn. Stat. 513.52 to 513.60 can be waived by written agreement between the parties.
The well disclosure under 103I.235, the septic disclosure, lead paint, radon, methamphetamine production, airport zoning and the predatory offender registry notice cannot be waived by the buyer.
A seller doing an as-is sale with a general waiver still owes all of those.
Why sellers use it#
Legitimately, in most cases.
Estates cannot fund repairs and have no knowledge of the property.
Lenders selling REO have never been inside it.
Owners in financial difficulty are selling precisely because they cannot spend on the house.
In each case the seller is not concealing anything; they genuinely have nothing to offer and nothing to disclose.
What a buyer should do#
Use the inspection fully, inside the window. On as-is distressed property it is the entire protection.
Add the specialists — sewer scope, radon test, septic compliance on rural property. Each takes time to schedule, which is the argument for an inspection period long enough to accommodate a second visit.
Negotiate utilities on, where the property is vacant. An inspection with the water and gas off cannot test the plumbing, the furnace or the water heater.
Price the discovery risk. As-is on a long-vacant property means what the inspection found plus what it could not see, and experienced buyers carry a contingency for the second.
As-is does not license concealment#
A limit worth stating, because sellers occasionally believe otherwise.
As-is means the seller will not repair. It does not permit actively hiding a known defect, and it does not defeat a claim based on affirmative misrepresentation.
A seller who papers over a crack, conceals water staining, or answers a direct question falsely has not been protected by the as-is clause. Minnesota's disclosure statute limits liability for what a seller genuinely did not know; it does not protect concealment of what they did.
For a buyer that means as-is is not a reason to stop asking questions. Direct questions, answered in writing, remain worth putting — and the answers matter regardless of the contract's condition terms.