(First time buyers here!) So we are under contract for a house and are 5k under asking ($390k home). We asked for under asking because the house was priced a bit high compared to comps given its age and visible condition. We had an inspection that found a bunch of little stuff and some big stuff. All the little stuff we are planning on doing ourselves like fixing the handrail in stairs, sealing driveway cracks, fixing sewer clean out, installing more smoke detectors, etc.
Here are the things we asked the seller for:
– roof is 20 years old and has hail damage (notably, the seller is older and estimated the roof was 7-8 years old so that’s what we were assuming going into the contract), inspection guy recommended we have the seller replace the roof with their insurance so we asked for that since insuring it in its current state is unlikely.
-Radon levels came back high so we are asking they install a radon mitigation system. I think the inspector estimated around $1k
-we had a fireplace inspection (we used the seller’s fireplace service company) and the inspection found cracks and significant damage that makes it unusable in its current state. They recommended installing a gas insert as that would be the cheapest fix so we had them give us a quote that came to around $6k so we are asking them for a credit for that amount so we can put in one we like not just the cheapest.
– all the carpets are in bad condition and need to be replaced. Are they still functional? Technically yes but any reasonable person would want them fixed (major stains, wrinkles, pulling away from edges). This may be where we are being the most unreasonable though as we had a carpet company give us a quote to fix the carpets which would come to about $7k and we asked again for a credit so we could pick a carpet we like.
For context, the house had zero other offers and was on the market for 3 weeks before we put in our offer. Our area is leaning a bit towards a buyers market at the moment. Also the sellers disclosure was not accurate about the age of things and they did not know the fireplace had issues and thought the roof was much younger.
I know a lot of this is just waiting to see what they say, but what do you think of our asks? Is this reasonable? We love this house and are willing to negotiate. I just hope our asks won’t make them upset.
Did we ask for realistic post-inspection fixes?
byu/Pooraf666 inRealEstate
Posted by Pooraf666
4 Comments
The seller will
Always do a shitty job on the repairs .
Doing the roof might be the only one to ask for since it’s gonna make getting insurance difficult
The ins companies don’t care about the condition of the roof , they only care
About the age
Roof is reasonable, depending on its state. Radon mitigation is reasonable.
Gas fireplace that you picked out is considered an upgrade, not a repair; I wouldn’t give this as a seller.
Flooring isn’t reasonable. It’s in working order and not a health hazard. This would be considered an upgrade, not a repair, especially as its carpet you picked out. You saw the condition of the carpet when you toured, your bid should have reflected that. Professional carpet cleaning would be a reasonable ask though.
3 weeks on the market before getting a single offer isn’t actually a long time.
I don’t think you were unreasonable. But if the seller is delusional about how nice his house is, he’s unlikely to agree to most of that. He thinks his house is GREAT and that you’re just trying to shake him down.
The most realistic thing IMO, in that list, is seeing what insurance will do for the roof. Have your insurance agent pull a claims history on the house. It’s possible they made a claim, collected a check from insurance, but didn’t put any money back into the roof. Not really anything you can do in that case, aside from walking away. But it might make it easier to walk away. Because an unethical/cheap person like that has not made solid repairs to the house any time anything else has broken. So you will find jacked up stuff after closing and have no recourse about them.
The fundamental issue is whether the condition of the house is accurately baked into the price.
Also how hot the market is and how much you want the place.