There’s a lot of give-and-take when it comes to buying a house. Buyers and sellers will haggle and dicker over the selling price, the closing date – even over which items stay with the house and which ones the seller can take.
But perhaps the most important bargaining takes place over the report from the buyer’s home inspector. If the report is as specific as it should be, it’ll list everything that’s wrong with the place, right down to a burned-out lightbulb.
The problem is that many buyers use these reports as clubs to beat down sellers until they agree to pay for every little thing. When buyers go too far, sellers often opt to cast them aside and wait for the next one to come along.
Whether you realize it or not, if you, as a buyer, ask the seller to make any kind of repair, you are renegotiating the contract. In effect, your request for repairs rejects the original offer and introduces a new one – one the seller does not have to accept.
The lesson for buyers, then, is: Don’t sweat the small stuff. As Missy Yost of EXP Realty in Charleston, South Carolina, wrote for Inman a few years back, buyers must “understand which repairs are necessary and which may annoy the seller enough for the deal to shatter.”
Her advice: If repairs are not related to a safety issue or the breakdown of an expensive system, you are not doing yourself any favors by asking the seller to make them.
Focus on Roofs, Major Systems
This is not to say buyers shouldn’t ask sellers to fix or replace major items that are faulty. If your inspector reports that the air conditioning could fail at any minute, you certainly should demand that it be replaced. Ditto for a roof on its last legs.
These and other expensive repairs are not ones that most buyers want to cover; after all, they are probably going down to their last nickel just to get the place. And sellers shouldn’t ask buyers to assume a burden they should have undertaken themselves years ago.
Buyers have a strong bargaining position if and when sellers are alerted to major structural issues with the home. And if the buyers do decide to walk away, the law in most places says the sellers must notify any future would-be buyers of those defects. Unless those big-ticket items are rectified, only buyers looking for fixer-uppers will apply. So why not agree, or at least negotiate, with a buyer who’s still showing interest?
At the same time, though, buyers should never nitpick. Pay more attention to the bones of the building than the cosmetic stuff. If something can be easily repaired or replaced – a chipped bathroom mirror, for example – or doesn’t cost much, do it yourself once you move in. Ask yourself: Is it worth blowing the deal over a $300 item?
Nitpicking also extends to old but perfectly serviceable roofs, HVAC systems and appliances. You are buying a used house, not a brand-new one. Besides, you saw these items every time you toured the place; if anything, their age should have been a factor in your original offer.
Even something that is a safety concern, but can be rectified easily and inexpensively, can be overlooked until you move in. For example, unless building codes say differently, you can choose to install working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors after closing but before you take occupancy.
On the other hand, there are some things you might want to address, even if they don’t seem overly serious. For instance, the house won’t fall down because of sticky windows and doors, but they’re a pain to deal with.
Smart Sellers Get Own Inspections
Sellers are more inclined to deal with buyers whose repair requests are reasonable. To buttress their bargaining position, savvy sellers have their homes inspected, and take care of any issues found, before even listing them. That way, if the buyer’s inspector says the place is in horrible shape, the seller will know something is fishy.
That’s what happened to one of Arizona agent Anna Kruchten’s clients a while back. As she wrote on ActiveRain in 2016, the buyer’s inspector noted that the roof had been patched, and suggested having a roofer look at it. The roofer said the whole thing had to be replaced – to the tune of $12,000. But the seller had had the roof inspected annually, so he knew better.
Kruchten then called in one of her trusted inspectors, who found nothing wrong. The seller refused the buyer’s pricey demand, and the deal moved ahead. But that dishonest roofer “could have blown the sale out of the water,” Kruchten wrote.
This is not to say that sellers should reject every repair requested by the buyer. Just because you’ve lived with an overloaded electrical system for years without incident is no excuse to turn a blind eye to a serious hazard. But at the same time, don’t try to make complicated repairs yourself. Hire a professional – if only because the buyer’s inspector can probably spot amateur work.
“Saving $200 to $300 for an electrician or plumber could end up costing you thousands in the end,” Adam Long of HomeTeam Inspection Service told Realtor Magazine in 2022.
Take electrical work: Depending on the extent of the project, you might need a permit or two, and bad wiring is flat-out dangerous – potentially resulting in a fire or electrocution. Not only that, but inspectors can spot shoddy wiring in a heartbeat, and the buyer may demand that it be redone by a professional.
So why not hire a pro in the first place?
Lew Sichelman has been covering real estate for more than 50 years. He is a regular contributor to numerous shelter magazines and housing and housing-finance industry publications. Readers can contact him at lsichelman@aol.com.
