Tips For How To Have A Good Negotiation After A Home Inspection

Today, many real estate contracts have a clause that allows the buyer to hire a home inspector before finalizing the deal. A home inspector will then evaluate the property from every aspect, ensuring the home is safe. They will identify the parts of the house that are out of code or need a replacement. While once the home inspector completes a home inspection in Michigan, the buyer gets a detailed report. This report summarizes the inspector’s findings. If the buyer doesn’t want to back out from the deal, they can go with negotiations. If you are unsure how to negotiate, you can read the following article that gives some tips on negotiating. 

Get Help From Your Real Estate Agent When Reviewing Inspection Report

When you’ve your inspector’s report in hand, you may send a copy to your real estate agent. Know that your real estate agent has an experience in this area and can assist you with his recommendations. They can recommend you the concessions or repairs you should ask from the buyer. Considering their experience, they will have a good sense of what the seller will agree to if they want to complete the sale. 

Prioritize Repairs By Severity And Cost 

The home inspection report will highlight significant and minor issues both. There might be some critical issues that need repair as soon as possible. It is then on you to prioritize the severe problems over minor issues. You may need to list the repairs you consider “deal breakers.” These will be the things that will make you walk away from the deal if they are not either fixed or compensated for. At the same time, you may also need to make a separate list where you will jot down the minor repairs. Know that minor repairs are such repairs that are best to get repaired; if not, you can live with them or fix them yourself if you need to. 

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

It’s typically advisable to overlook most minor concerns to complete the transaction. Cosmetic problems like loose boards chipped paint, or any repair that costs less than $100 are often not addressed by sellers. Just prepare to take care of it yourself when you purchase the house unless there is a significant safety hazard, structural issue, or building code violation.

Request Concessions For Major Items

Getting a price reduction to cover repairs is frequently requested by all parties because time is often important for both in a real estate transaction. You should ask the seller for a concession if there are significant issues with the property, such as sagging foundations, an old roof, faulty HVAC systems, or mold. You can demand that they make the repairs before finalizing the agreement, but the seller will frequently lower the sale price. If your lender allows it, you can also request a cash credit at closing, in this case the seller will repay you a portion of the sale proceeds.

Get Quotes From Contractors

Determining the estimated cost of the repairs is the next demanding task. Any estimates you obtain can be discussed with the seller to support any negotiations, price reductions, or money demands you make for repairs. If you accept a price decrease in place of the seller completing repairs, you’ll need to seek your bids from contractors, as home inspectors do not provide repair estimates.

Take The Market Into Consideration

There are two types of markets, buyer’s market, and seller’s market. It is essential to know which market you are buying from. If you are buying from a seller’s market, know that a seller might have multiple offers for the same house. Hence, you must be somewhat lenient during the negotiations, as you backing out from the sale won’t act as a threat to the seller. At the same time, it is the opposite when you are purchasing from a buyer’s market. In this case, you will have the upper hand during the negotiations.

Know What “As-Is” Means

You might see many houses listed as “as-is,” and you should know what that means. You shall take this as a clear sign that the seller doesn’t want to make any repairs themselves. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t negotiate the price. If you agree to buy the house after a home inspection has revealed the severe issues, you should ask for a lower selling price.

Work On Your Poker Face

Whenever the seller’s agent is around, try to avoid talking too much about your plans. For instance, the listing agent will probably inform the seller if you discuss all the renovations you intend to make in detail. Given that they know you want to undertake expensive modifications, the seller might be unwilling to offer much in the way of repairs.

Be Reasonable

Your real estate agent may advise you on what would be “too much” to ask for when negotiating the price of the house. Most of the time, if your requests are sensible, you will get most of what you ask for. After all, you and the seller both want to complete the transaction. Consider the seller’s perspective and what you would accept if you were them. If they feel your demands are unrealistic, they may completely reject them.

Approach the Request for Repairs with Gratitude vs. an Attack

Know that the repairs come as a surprise not just to the buyer but to the seller. The seller, in most of the cases is unaware of the repairs that the inspection report highlights as they are usually hidden. Hence, it is possible that the seller might be living in a home with major structural or foundation issues for years. And, in all this time they didn’t have any idea until they had an inspection report. It is worst to communicate with a seller by demanding they pay for the repair. 

Know When To Walk Away

With the home inspection contingency clause in your contract, you can cancel the transaction and receive your money back if you and the buyer cannot agree regarding repairs. You are probably better off looking for another home that satisfies your requirements if a seller doesn’t satisfy your repair requests.

At Total House Inspections, we can help you with professional home inspection services in Rochester Hills . Our expert home inspectors will ensure that you have an unbiased report for the house you intend to buy. Hence, if you want transparency with your home, there is no better place than Total House Inspections.