First time home buyer here, so I feel a little over my home. I’m under contract for a century home that has some issues. Plenty of little ones but anyways, we sent a Inspection Objection asking mainly for:
•20 feet of a very damaged sewer line to be replaced
•rotting wood on the roof and some windowsills to be replaced and painted
•incorrect electrical wiring to be fixed
•radon mitigation
•structural engineer to look at this garage with bowing walls and a brick chimney that appears to be not 100% secure to the house anymore (our agent added this one)
Our agent added some other things like adding combustion air vents to furnace, fix some shingles, remove peeling paint from the brick, and a few other things that weren’t accepted which I’m fine with.
However, out of the big ticket items, they only want to fix half of the sewer lines because they got a different quote, they do not want to fix the rotting wood, and they don’t want to hire an engineer to assess this leaning brick garage and chimney (and to fix with some tuckinpoint) which their agent called maintenance. They also don’t want to fix some wonky wiring.
I do know our agent asked for quite a lot, but how big of a deal is the rotting wood plus this leaning brick garage and other things they don’t want to agree to? Where should we meet them halfway?
Posted by TW_Halsey
7 Comments
That garage and chimney situation sounds like it could be pretty serious structural issue – I wouldn’t call that just maintenance work honestly.
Shoot the messenger if you’d like, but century homes are not what a first time homebuyer should be looking to buy.
Structural and safety issues are important. Most of the items on the inspection report are deferred maintenance. Homeowners pay for these items when they are first discovered or when they sell their home. If the sellers will not make reasonable concessions, and you cannot afford to fix these defects, walking away is a legitimate option.
Hard to say about the garage without pictures. If it is stick built and unfinished should be pretty easy to fix. If concrete and below grade then that will be a lot harder to fix.
What? You NEVER ask for help sellers to fix anything! They will only do the quickest and cheapest or nothing at all. If they cared they would have fixed stuff while they lived there, now you think they will fix it for you?
And due diligence is on you. You want a structural engineer’s opinion then hire one.
Does the current price match the current condition? If not then get quotes and ask for a seller credit and/or price reduction.
Otherwise cancel.
sewer good luck with that, 10-20k and months to find someone. Seller will not have patience for such.
Unfortunately your agent asked for the moon on a house you knew was old and in need of work before making the offer. The problem is now the seller is balking, and unlikely to budge far.
For future reference, on an old home plan to only ask for repairs on things that are either actively broken/not working or a serious safety issue. The rest you nee to consider in your offer to the best of your ability.
In your shoes I likely would have asked for:
* the sewer line to be repaired (they could choose whomever the seller wanted but the repair would be inspected by a contractor of your choice. This is a fair fix because it is actively broken and you could not have known about it when you made the offer.)
* a credit for 25-50% a roof replacement (you’re not entitled to a new roof on an old home, but the rot is an opening to ask for partial credit so you can later replace the roof yourself),
* electrical wiring safety issues repaired,
* and I would have asked for an extension so *I* could hire an engineer to assess the leaning garage. (I would not expect the seller to pay for inspection of a wear-and-tear item on a 100 year old house).
* I would not have asked for any of the little stuff like shingles.