Well, today should be interesting. Yesterday sure was. The buyer's inspection report and what he expected us to fix was sent. First off, the side of this house that faces the sun has a few cracks in the siding (hardie plank cement type siding). The concrete at the garage door is cracking. It was this way when we bought (and had inspection and FHA appraisal) and nothing has changed. Before we listed our house DH told our realtor that those two issues were the only "major" issues that we were aware of with this house and that we were not repairing for a buyer. Our agent told us to list them in the listing disclosures and then we are covered, a buyer can't then come back and say fix, after making an offer.
So, we get the list of "demands" yesterday. In addition to repairing the siding and concrete, he has a list of totally piddly little things. The inspector said our electrical panel in the shop is wired reversed hot and neutral. It is not and was inspected by a state electrical inspector when we put it in! It is 200 amp, so there is no neutral. he wants the furnace cleaned and serviced, wants a patch in the masterbath tub drain fixed. I'm not sure why the patch (barely visible, it matches tub color) was needed in the first place (it was there when we bought) but whatever the reason, it fixed the issue and has never leaked. Why replace it with another patch? That will probably just end up leaking! Underneath the crawl space there is a floor joist with a notch cut out (to fit a pipe coming down). It was built that way. Probably not exactly how it should have been done, but it's not causing an issue and never will. There is a "fake" post that comes down in our covered front porch area, basically put there to hook the gutter on, is my guess. It is not a support beam. It's not secured into the concrete at the bottom, he wants that secured to the concrete. And there's a couple spots on the shakes where they have expanded and shrunk over the years that you can now see the edge of the wood shakes. In addition to the things he wants fixed he is requiring that they all be done by a qualified contractor (good luck finding one of those available!) and receipts furnished.
I sent the notice back this morning with our initials in the "rejected" section. We had already disclosed the siding and concrete. We also feel that the $4000 allowance we already agreed to give back to the buyer out of our proceeds is more than adequate concession on our part in this sale. The buyer is going VA financing, which is not our problem to deal with. FHA and conventional would/did have no issues with the same condition of this house, less than 2 years ago. If his financing requires more than what is standard, then that is his issue to resolve. Not to mention we still have to pay the realtors fees and closing fees on this $4000 allowance. The agents are making money on money we are giving away to the buyer. Don't expect me to keep on giving.
My idea of getting an inspection done on a house purchase is to make sure there are no MAJOR issues that a person cannot see just viewing the house. ie - mold, water damage, wood rot, foundation issues, termites. It is not so the buyer can come back and nit pick to fix stupid stuff. While it's only a 10 year old house, it's not a new house. Good luck finding a house in this tiny town that is in better condition than this one. I honestly doubt there is one. I'd say 90% of the houses in town are at least 50 years old.
Edit: just to clarify. I'm not taking this personally, at all. I know this is a great little house, in great condition, and being 10 years old, there of course will be minor things that an inspector will pick out. I also know this is one of the nicest houses (and for the money) in this little town, so I'm not really giving a hoot if the buyer wants stuff fixed. Like I said, good luck finding another house in town as nice (and new) as this one. It's also nothing that has gone wrong with this house in the almost 2 years since we've owned it. (we actually improved it). These were all the same items on the inspection we got. (other than the shop electrical panel, we had that put in after purchasing) We just chose not to worry about them, especially since the sellers had already come down in price. Now, if we had not agreed to give the buyer a $4000 allowance, I might have considered taking care of a few of his items. But the $4000 was generous, on our part, I think. We also did our part and due diligence in regards to these two "main" issues of siding and concrete. We told our realtor up front about them and told him we were not fixing or paying to have fixed. We didn't change anything after the fact/offer, the buyer has, which is completely his right at this point, just as it is our right to not agree to them. We will see what happens. At this point, we are ok with whatever happens either way. It's just one of the many things we are dealing with right now.
You need to not take this so personal. We sold two homes and the homebuyers were the same. Someone must tell them to ask for everything and that they are doing you favor in buying your home. Have your realtor deal with them and tell them what you will and will not fix. I mentioned before someone wanted used shower curtain and the kids bed spreads. People are crazy. Now if you are desperate and want this to end you might need to consider some of their requests.
ReplyDeleteHi Cheryl. I'm not taking it personal, at all. I might sound like it because I'm annoyed, but I realize that's what agents and buyers do (though we did not do that one bit when we bought this place) I'm just not willing to give even more concessions than we already gave the buyer. We disclosed the two "main" issues in advance and were told that by doing this the buyer then couldn't come back and try to negotiate them. We aren't desperate to sell at all, in the grand scheme of things, and feel that the $4000 allowance back to the buyer we agreed to give out of our proceeds was more than generous. We do not need or want to give more. If he wants/needs those things fixed, he can pay for it himself (just as we paid to fix a few of the other minor things that were wrong, after we purchased this house). If he doesn't want to and ends the sale, we can live with that too.
DeleteLike Cheryl said, don't take in personally at all! When we purchased all 3 of our homes (in different states, so definitely different realtors), our realtors told us to ask to have every single thing on the inspection list fixed. Ask for it and see what they come back with. It's just a first swing at negotiations. If they say yes, awesome, less for us to deal with. If they give something, cool; and if a flat no, then re-evaluate what we, as the buyer, are willing to fix - and start the negotiations again. It's just negotiations, nothing personal against you or the house.
ReplyDeleteHi,thanks for sharing and commenting. I know what you mean, it's nothing personal. Well, it's nothing personal that we are saying no :). Like I said, I feel the $4000 allowance was super generous. Like I just told my DH, if the buyer wants the purchase more than we need/want the sale, I guess he'll figure it out!
DeleteFYI - all of these issues (and more!) were in our inspection report when we bought. They were all minor stuff. We negotiated none of them. The seller had had his first buyer's sale fall through and he had told us he had accepted $8,000 less than asking. We offered the same. We figured they were willing to come down $8,000 in price, we weren't going to nitpick on little stuff to fix. This buyer has every right to do that, just as we have every right to say nope.
ReplyDeleteYour first night in the new house watching the beautiful sunset will make all this worthwhile....just keep picturing that when dealing with all these chuckleheads!!!!
ReplyDeletehaha! good point. For once I'd like someone to accommodate me :)
DeleteGood for you! If they want the house bad enough, they'll make the "repairs" they feel are needed. Given how fast you got an offer, you'd likely have no trouble getting another one.
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
DeleteThis reminds me so much of our experience with the inspector on the house we just sold. He told buyer she should test for radon (but no one told us until day of inspection). Then the radon test was so low that he told buyer we must have opened all the windows and that she should w/hold money out of escrow so that she could fix it (hardly any registered at all on their meter). The first thing he said to me as I got out of the car was "now don't take any of what I do personal...". But I swear since they are getting paid handsomely, they almost feel as if they must "find" something. He picked out all these stupid nit picky things (like that we should not use wood chips for mulch and the cord for our sump pump was plugged into an extension cord and ignored stuff like our fridge needed a new filter, two electrical outlets either did not work, or were loose and we had 2 big cracks in driveway - he ignored all that!). The buyer practically ignored everything he said, but she had traditional financing and put down like 1/3 of the purchase, so ours just sailed right through.
ReplyDeleteI think it's ridiculous. He put a radon tester in our house too for 2 days. Fortunately your buyer ignored all that as they should! At our previous house DH put a brand new furnace filter in 2 hours before inspector got there. We had one of our security cameras in our family room that could view across the open floor plan and you could see into our laundry room. He put on the report that the filter needs changing!We watched the recording of when he was in the laundry room and he never even opened the furnace cover! Unless it's something major found, like wood rot, foundation cracking, termites, etc, don't even bother me with the little crap. I've already priced my house accordingly to the condition it is in.
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