How to Respond to a Home Inspection Report
It was a three-story home in a prestigious suburb--a short walk to respected restaurants and boutiques. And the well-kept home quickly attracted an offer the seller found palatable.
But then the buyer’s home inspector came through, and the seller was stunned at what happened next. The buyer demanded $50,000 in improvements, including a repaved driveway and walkway, rebuilt garage doors and major changes in the roof, which was just 5 years old.
“The owner was flabbergasted,” recalled Portia Pantages, a broker-associate for the Coldwell Banker chain.
Rather than capitulate to the buyers’ “all or nothing” demands for a $50,000 price reduction, the seller waited for another deal, said Pantages, who listed the property.
The owner’s instincts were right, she says.
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Within one week, another buyer came along, brought in a different home inspector and offered the same price as the first prospect, but with demands for only truly substantive improvements, worth $5,000.
Real estate specialists say sellers should take home inspection reports seriously, especially when they reveal hidden defects of major importance. But they say no seller should let himself or herself be bullied into major price cuts for superficial “defects” that were obvious to the buyer when the offer was made.
“You have to separate the frivolous from the meat,” said Linda J. Cutter, who sells homes through the Re/Max realty chain.
To be sure, all home buyers have the right to hire their own inspector to do a thorough checkup of the house before they complete a purchase. And, as real estate specialists point out, any seller who tries to discourage an inspection can raise suspicions in the buyer’s eyes.
But sellers should be aware that an increasing number of buyers try to use a home inspection as a bargaining tool, said David M. Peretti, a co-owner of Hammond Residential Inc., an independent realty chain with five offices.
“A lot of home inspection reports are perceived by buyers as the opening of ‘Round Two’ of negotiations,” Peretti said.
How can a home seller respond with honesty and integrity to a home inspection while still protecting himself from unreasonable demands? Realty experts offer five pointers:
* No. 1: Realize that the results of a home inspection are open to interpretation.
It’s important for the seller’s agent to be present during a home inspection to get the inspector’s comments in context, Peretti said.
“Sometimes comments are just misheard. There’s a difference between saying a roof is 10 years old and saying it has to be replaced,” he said.
A listing agent who is present at an inspection not only gets the straight story on the inspector’s remarks but also gets a sense of the buyer’s reaction to remarks made by the inspector, because buyers are usually also there.
“When I follow an inspector around, I know when a buyer is overreacting. Some people overreact when a faucet needs a new washer,” Pantages said.
Knowing exactly what was said during an inspection--and hearing about the buyers’ response--can yield valuable information for the homeowner if negotiations become protracted, she said.
* No. 2: Request a copy of the inspector’s written report if a dispute arises.
Did the inspector actually say the house had a nonworking heating system or simply that the system had not been in service for a decade? The inspector’s report should spell out precisely what was meant, Peretti said.
Although the homeowner doesn’t automatically get a copy of the written home inspection report, most buyers’ agents will honor a request for the report, Peretti said.
* No. 3: Yield to a nit-picker’s demands to keep an otherwise good deal alive.
After you’ve gone to great lengths to prepare your house for the market, it can prove extremely annoying to confront a list of minor defects the buyers are insisting you must fix or they’ll walk away from the transaction.
You may be exasperated that the buyer has chosen to focus on a banister that needs a bit of tightening, a light fixture that should be rehung or a missing window shade. It might seem like they’re making a mountain out of a molehill at your expense.
Even so, you may well want to honor the requests of nit-pickers focused solely on small and inexpensive complaints about the house, Peretti said.
“Try to keep things in perspective, and your perspective is to sell the home,” he says.
* No. 4: Cut your price rather than promise to fix major items.
Did your buyer’s home inspection make it positively clear that your central air-conditioning system is beyond repair and must be replaced?
If so, you could be better off cutting the price of the home by the cost of a new air conditioner rather than trying to have the work done yourself, contended Pantages, of Coldwell Banker. That way you can avoid a possible squabble over the workmanship involved in a job that could threaten the entire transaction, she said.
How can you and the buyer agree on the fair cost of a new air-conditioning system?
One way is to have agents representing both parties get estimates from contractors and then use the estimates to reach a compromise that satisfies both sides.
* No. 5: Be especially careful to disclose serious defects discovered during an inspection.
Maybe you live in a house topped by a worn-out roof and didn’t know it until a buyer came by with an inspector. And maybe that prospective buyer used the discovery as a reason to walk away from the purchase of your property.
Stifle any temptation to hide your knowledge of the bad roof when next you get an offer, cautioned Cutter, the Re/Max broker-associate. Under California realty disclosure laws, you have a legal obligation to tell all you know about anything that could affect the value of the house.
“You’d better look in the mirror and not have a lawsuit looking back,” Cutter said.
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Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.
