Got an offer. Buyers had their inspection. They hired the inspector from helll, he listed everything and I mean EVERYTHING. I know, I know, we all want the home in perfect condition, but trust me, this guy got off on every minute detail.
The buyers asked for every single thing on the list be done.
I called out two handyman, and both had the same reaction. About 50% of the stuff on the list does not need to be done. Cause in their opinion, 50% of the stuff he listed is fine, or so minute, it would take weeks to do it and there would be no change.
How do you typically handle this sort of thing?
Am I under some form of ethical obligation to act in good faith and at least have most of the repairs done?
I sold the home $22,000 below comparable homes sales in my area. The repairs they are demanding would exceed $5,500. I only want to have $2200 of them done, the rest are fluff.
Is this ethical? How do most deal with this?
The buyers are essentially making an offer to buy your house on condition that all the work is done. That is perfectly legal and ethical.
You are under no obligation to accept the offer. You can counter by saying that you will not do any of the work, that you will do specified parts of the work, that you will do all of the work etc. You can counter by raising your sales price by 5000 dollars and saying you will have all the work done. You can counter by saying you will have none of the work done, but will reduce your sales price by $1000 and sell the place ‘as is’.
But: don’t you have an agent representing you? What does h/she say.
4 Responses to “Home buyers want EVERYTHING on inspection done?”
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February 24th, 2010 at 1:06 am
The buyers are essentially making an offer to buy your house on condition that all the work is done. That is perfectly legal and ethical.
You are under no obligation to accept the offer. You can counter by saying that you will not do any of the work, that you will do specified parts of the work, that you will do all of the work etc. You can counter by raising your sales price by 5000 dollars and saying you will have all the work done. You can counter by saying you will have none of the work done, but will reduce your sales price by $1000 and sell the place ‘as is’.
But: don’t you have an agent representing you? What does h/she say.
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February 24th, 2010 at 1:33 am
Dump the buyer. No sale is worth it if your buyer is going to be unhappy and nothing is going to make this buyer happy.
If they are going to be like that they are 100% likely to come after you when they move in and find something the inspector missed. You don’t want to be sued for a new roof because there is one shingle missing.
The buyers are most likely not experienced and want everything their way. I sold my last house with an "as is" clause. You are already selling below comps and the market is now likely to go up. They may stick you with the inspection bill, but it’s a small price to pay. Do not waffle with this kind fo thing.
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February 24th, 2010 at 2:13 am
Well, talk to your agent but I rather agree with Peter.
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February 24th, 2010 at 2:39 am
All things must be considered. Is your home in condition to warrant $22,000 discount? If so these things may just cost $22,000 to fix. From your story it doesnt sound like this is the case.
I just bought a house that was cheap due to market conditions. The home inspection turned up quite a few little jobs that will cost a few thousand over what I expected. I did not insist the seller take care of it as I already suspected much of it and got a reasonable price on the house by; explaining to the seller I would be only be looking for magor problems with the inspection.
We could barter all day on piddly crap then bargain back down on the same fluff after inpection, or we could come to a price and also consider this upon inspection. Worked for us.
Sometimes you have to know when to you get a deal and take it. I got my house around the same discount off market. I enjoy the fact I took advantage of market conditons but also can see thru the sellers eyes. There is a line between being sharp and taking advantage and being a total pain in the behind. For me, I signed off and agreed I would take care of these small repairs. Why? because I’m not about to lose a good deal on the house I wanted over a few grand in fairly "routine" repairs. These repairs could easily of surfaced 2 months from now anyway. Good houses that "fit" are hard to find. Had I paid top dollar for the house I would have asked him to do it.
Take care of the reasonable stuff. You are going to have to do this no matter what. Get a copy of the inspection and have the real problems repaired. If the buyer doesnt like that – so what? You’ve done two things – you have taken care of the issues any buyer will want done and you have the bills to go along with that inspection copy to show the next potential buyers that you’ve done it. If the buyer walks then they probably were going to walk anyway. Home inspections are a great out for buyers. They may have changed their mind about the house in general. If they are truly serious they will not walk from the real repairs being done.
If your house is truly 22,000 under comparables and you have a) a copy of the inspection b) receipts for the reticfied problems C) copies from the handman stating the "fluff" work was indeed fluff ….. well the next buyer around will get himself a good deal. Nothing will be lost as the needed repairs are "needed". The overly picky inspection will actually work in your favor.
Everybody is different. You are free to do as you wish as is the seller. Reasonable people though tend to be the ones who BUY your house rather than makes demands and screw around. I’ve run into that with both buyers are sellers. The key for me is to know the market, not be afraid to walk away and be reasonable. Sometimes people will blow a perfectly good deal over little things. I walked from buying a few houses when the sellers didnt want to recognize things like overloaded electrical boxes etc that needed attention just to be insured. Sellers can be just as bad when it comes time to value that sort of thing. Just because the seller is willing to lie to their insurance company and thus render the policy invalid doenst mean I will. First I try to step back and be reasonable, documents, receipts, statements from the handymen ….. If that fails, I’d rather change people than argue to change their mind.
Again – home inspections are the "out". Realtors use this for multiple buyer offers in cold markets. Your buyers may have an offer waiting on another house. Right now they can walk from you to entertain that offer. While unethical, I personally had a realtor do this with me. He wrote 2 offers on two different properties subject to inspection. He wanted to present them both. Whoever played ball more would win. I declined as I did not like the realtor. However if he does it I’m sure others do. Whoever begs the most would make a sale and the other "condition" would be unsatisfactory no matter what.
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