There were issues uncovered during the home inspection. How do I deal with those? First off, don’t panic. Every house will have some issues; even new build houses may have issues (even if the builder doesn’t want to admit it). Go over the home inspection report with the inspector at the end of the inspection and get his/her advice. A good home inspector will be able to discuss with you the seriousness of the various issues that were uncovered and perhaps give you some idea of the costs to remediate the issues. Many issues sound scarier that they really are and all issues have some solution; even if some resolutions are costlier than others. |
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Some of the more common issues uncovered in home inspections include:
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Meet with your Realtor® and discuss what to do about any issues that are reported in the home inspection report. There are very few issues that cannot be resolved and allow you to move ahead with the purchase; however, any request that you make will cost the home owner/Sellers money and they may be unable or unwilling to spend to remediate the issues or make the repairs. Don’t nickel and dime the homeowner over minor issues. Focus on the bigger issues that really concern you for your health and safety or which are things that are too big for you to take on right after you move in (like if the place needs a new roof). Here’s a good article on things that the buyer should not ask for out of the home inspection. |
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The key will be how the Seller reacts to your requests to fix the issues. You should decide which issues you can deal with later and which ones are “show-stoppers” for you, unless they are fixed by the Sellers. You may have to walk away from this deal and you will not get back the money that you spent to have the home inspected. That was money well spent to protect you from nasty surprises later. The Seller may offer to get bids on the work and may be willing to reduce the purchase price by all or part of the cost of the repairs. You have to decide whether the repairs are something that you want to deal with after you close on the house or something that you absolutely need the Seller to do before you close. The Seller may be too busy getting ready to move to have the time to go out for bids and manage the repair process. He may just offer some reasonable amount of money off the purchase price. It’s your call on whether you want to force the issue of getting the repairs done before the closing. If you can live with closing and moving in and then getting the work done, this may be the best resolution of the issues. |
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Norm Werner is a Realtor® working for Real Estate One in Milford, Michigan. Norms helps people buy and sell houses in Southeastern Michigan, in Oakland, Livingston and Macomb Counties You can contact Norm about finding a new home or about getting a Market Analysis for your current home by texting or calling him at 248-763-2497 or click here to go to his web site and fill out Help Form for buyers and sellers. To see all of the post that have been made to this series of posts go to the post series index. |
Photo by Nik MacMillan on Unsplash