Are we asking too much in terms of home repairs after inspection? (agents, price)
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It is frankly NEVER a good idea to have the seller try to get "long term, done right" fixes done. You are MUCH better off hiring your own contractors who will give YOU a guarantee for the quality of their work. What you have created is a "no man's land" where the seller probably spent as little as possible to try to meet the technical conditions of having repaired the problems. Honestly, if you can afford the closing costs and such it is probably smart to just chalk up the mess to a "learning curve" and hire your own repair people and pay them out of your own pocket.
This is sound advice.
Otherwise your future post might well be...yes we agreed to something with the seller/inspector/lender/real estate agent, etc. but we have since found "it" that it was not done they way we thought it should be..so who can we sue.....
Within a year, I bought and sold 2 homes. I have to say I really sympathize with sellers. I've posted this before, but I think a seller paying a buyers closing costs should be banned. Why should someone have to pay a person to buy their home? Fixing things is a must, but a buyer should be able to afford to buy a house, and closing costs show they can. Because its a buyers market, buyers are turning into game playing bullies. Not including you OP, but wanted to point out how a seller feels. When you go to sell your home, you'll see. I think the items your asking to be fixed sound very reasonable...her appliances, not so much, sorry.
I know its "business", but sellers usually get the shaft. Once it gets close to the end, buyers know the seller doesnt want the deal to fall through, and thats when the shtf. My seller must have loved me. I offered what I thought was fair, there was only 1 thing needing fixed at the cost of $300, I paid it cause I wanted to make sure it was done right. I never even considered fridge, washer, etc., since I have my own and realize most folks need theirs for where ever they are moving. I've just never seen such greed, as when a person is buying a house. Concessions are silly in my opinion. A buyer agrees to pay a certain price, then chips away at the sellers profit, a chunk at a time.
The 2ed house my hubby & I sold in the early 80's, we had the buyers who oversee "greedville". We took all we could, then said We're Done! And they didnt walk, they shut up and bought. It sounds like I'm pickin on you OP and I really just used your question to blow of steam. But when a buyer says they are getting a great deal, I do wonder why they then ask for the moon and the stars, esp. since you stated your seller is really barely getting by with this deal. Its so hard to buy and love a house, put a ton of money in it, then when you go to sell you break even. This hasnt happened to me, but I do feel for the sellers that are going through this.
Back to you, I'd do what the others said, and since its only $500, get it fixed yourself. Kudos for paying your closing costs, and hope you enjoy your new home. And to agents: Has it always been the norm to pay a buyers closing costs? Wouldnt it be eaiser to just offer less and not play the "who's gonna pay what, game?" tia
Treat it as a business transaction, and your requests as part of the negotiation. Nothing is too much to ask for, if you are willing to risk having to walk away. If you aren't, then consider your requests/demands accordingly.
Otherwise your future post might well be...yes we agreed to something with the seller/inspector/lender/real estate agent, etc. but we have since found "it" that it was not done they way we thought it should be..so who can we sue.....
It's not that it wasn't done the way we wanted...it's that it wasn't done at all. During the inspection, we saw that the chimney was sealed with tar. We asked for it to be properly flashed and they haven't done it.
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Seems odd you are so close to closing and the items have not been agreed upon. How is this addressed in your contract?
The items have been agreed upon. We gave them our list of what we wanted fixed weeks ago, right after we got the inspection done. But since that time, we have literally had to harass them to figure out what work was being done, and then harass them for receipts. And all the while, they have been telling us that they did EVERYTHING we asked. Well, it turns out that they did not do everything we asked. And we didn't find this out from them, we had to actually call the repairman (who isn't a repairman, he is basically a gardener).
Our contract has a home inspection contingency, and the home inspection contingency release form clearly states what we want fixed and clearly states that we can walk away if they refuse. They agreed to fix what we asked. Now it seems that they are backing out.
They are ALSO trying to back out on giving us a home warranty and a professional cleaning, which they have already signed a contract agreeing to do.
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Within a year, I bought and sold 2 homes. I have to say I really sympathize with sellers. I've posted this before, but I think a seller paying a buyers closing costs should be banned. Why should someone have to pay a person to buy their home? Fixing things is a must, but a buyer should be able to afford to buy a house, and closing costs show they can. Because its a buyers market, buyers are turning into game playing bullies. Not including you OP, but wanted to point out how a seller feels. When you go to sell your home, you'll see. I think the items your asking to be fixed sound very reasonable...her appliances, not so much, sorry.
I know its "business", but sellers usually get the shaft. Once it gets close to the end, buyers know the seller doesnt want the deal to fall through, and thats when the shtf. My seller must have loved me. I offered what I thought was fair, there was only 1 thing needing fixed at the cost of $300, I paid it cause I wanted to make sure it was done right. I never even considered fridge, washer, etc., since I have my own and realize most folks need theirs for where ever they are moving. I've just never seen such greed, as when a person is buying a house. Concessions are silly in my opinion. A buyer agrees to pay a certain price, then chips away at the sellers profit, a chunk at a time.
The 2ed house my hubby & I sold in the early 80's, we had the buyers who oversee "greedville". We took all we could, then said We're Done! And they didnt walk, they shut up and bought. It sounds like I'm pickin on you OP and I really just used your question to blow of steam. But when a buyer says they are getting a great deal, I do wonder why they then ask for the moon and the stars, esp. since you stated your seller is really barely getting by with this deal. Its so hard to buy and love a house, put a ton of money in it, then when you go to sell you break even. This hasnt happened to me, but I do feel for the sellers that are going through this.
Back to you, I'd do what the others said, and since its only $500, get it fixed yourself. Kudos for paying your closing costs, and hope you enjoy your new home. And to agents: Has it always been the norm to pay a buyers closing costs? Wouldnt it be eaiser to just offer less and not play the "who's gonna pay what, game?" tia
I agree with you and we have tried not to be too greedy. Maybe it is different around here but it is not unusual here to ask for some appliances. For instance, my fiance's mom just sold her home and the buyers wanted her fridge. Our agent pretty much expected us to ask for some appliances. It is also the norm for a seller to pay at LEAST 50% closing costs. I agree that it would be easier if everything was set and there wasn't so much back and forth over who pays what. I'm pretty tired of it to be honest.
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If you are serious about "knowing how low she could go w/o being a shortsale" and that is your goal then YOU SHOULD HAVE OFFERED THAT AMOUNT, though I suspect that you do not know all the details of what sorts of loans this seller has, how much they may have spent over the years to keep the place together, and all the other details of the SELLER'S finances, which frankly OUGHT TO BE irrelevant to what you offer...
We did offer that amount, and that's the amount we are buying the house for. And yes, her financial information ought to be irrelevant to us but she provided it to us without us even asking for it to show us exactly how low she could possibly go on the house in order to get us to raise our offer and cut down on length of negotiation. We ended up settling on a price that was a little higher than what we wanted, but enabled her to get out from under the home without it being a short sale. As compensation, we asked for some of her appliances. We thought that this was somewhat fair, considering that the house has sat on the market for a year now and no one so far has even been willing to meet her this far.
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I have NO IDEA what "$5000 below appraised value" matters to the deal. I do know that if it is ALREADY a deal that is agreed to "below market value" you ought not push the seller too hard.
It doesn't mean anything to the deal. I was saying that in response to someone who said that we were too emotionally invested in the property to explain that we were not so invested that we weren't getting a good deal.
Thanks for all the information everyone. We have asked her to leave us the funds in escrow so that she doesn't have to deal with it anymore and we can decide on the repairs ourselves. We'll see what she says.
I agree 1,000% with breeinmo. We're coming up on the closing dates (I hope) for dovetailed sale & purchase of 2 houses, and being the seller has been horrible. My husband and I have been saying almost exactly the same things as breeinmo., especially this: "Because its a buyers market, buyers are turning into game playing bullies." I don't know if our seller loves us, as buyers, but I do know that we bypassed literally (tens of) thousands of dollars in repairs (roof, foundation sealing, plumbing items, etc.) and asked for only one kitchen plumbing repair that was creating an immediate, gross problem that I knew we would not want to deal with as we were unpacking the U-Haul. We did this because we knew we had pushed the seller a LOT already in asking her to vacate the property as fast as needed, and enough is enough already. (And we had had a pre-inspection of the house many months ago, and knew the big problems when we made our offer.)
Like breeinmo., I am not trying to say that OP is the same as the buyers we have been dealing with. But reading the post, I did say to myself, "You'd let an entire deal fall apart for a $500 problem?" I know it's easy to say, "No! It's the PRINCIPLE of the thing, not the $500." But I guess my advice would be to just suck it up and complete the deal, as is (meaning, skip the flashing) - but that is ONLY if the new house otherwise fulfills a lot of your needs and solves a lot of your problems (e.g., gets you situated, comfortably and safely, closer to something or something you need to be closer to).
However, this is just the advice of some random stranger on the internet, so take it for what it's worth. Good luck to you, in any case, and Happy Thanksgiving.
The items have been agreed upon. We gave them our list of what we wanted fixed weeks ago, right after we got the inspection done. But since that time, we have literally had to harass them to figure out what work was being done, and then harass them for receipts. And all the while, they have been telling us that they did EVERYTHING we asked. Well, it turns out that they did not do everything we asked. And we didn't find this out from them, we had to actually call the repairman (who isn't a repairman, he is basically a gardener).
They agreed in writing to make your requested repairs?
Within a year, I bought and sold 2 homes. I have to say I really sympathize with sellers. I've posted this before, but I think a seller paying a buyers closing costs should be banned. Why should someone have to pay a person to buy their home? Fixing things is a must, but a buyer should be able to afford to buy a house, and closing costs show they can. Because its a buyers market, buyers are turning into game playing bullies. Not including you OP, but wanted to point out how a seller feels. When you go to sell your home, you'll see. I think the items your asking to be fixed sound very reasonable...her appliances, not so much, sorry.
I know its "business", but sellers usually get the shaft. Once it gets close to the end, buyers know the seller doesnt want the deal to fall through, and thats when the shtf. My seller must have loved me. I offered what I thought was fair, there was only 1 thing needing fixed at the cost of $300, I paid it cause I wanted to make sure it was done right. I never even considered fridge, washer, etc., since I have my own and realize most folks need theirs for where ever they are moving. I've just never seen such greed, as when a person is buying a house. Concessions are silly in my opinion. A buyer agrees to pay a certain price, then chips away at the sellers profit, a chunk at a time.
The 2ed house my hubby & I sold in the early 80's, we had the buyers who oversee "greedville". We took all we could, then said We're Done! And they didnt walk, they shut up and bought. It sounds like I'm pickin on you OP and I really just used your question to blow of steam. But when a buyer says they are getting a great deal, I do wonder why they then ask for the moon and the stars, esp. since you stated your seller is really barely getting by with this deal. Its so hard to buy and love a house, put a ton of money in it, then when you go to sell you break even. This hasnt happened to me, but I do feel for the sellers that are going through this.
Back things up a few years and you can easily change the word buyers with sellers. When the market was hot sellers were the "bullies".
And I don't agree at all with your rant on closing costs. You simply look at the net amount the buyer is offering. Who cares what the split is. If I offer 250K and the seller paying 5K closing costs is the same amount of money to the seller as offering 245K.
If these repairs were agreed on in writing, then it is absolutely reasonable to expect them to honor this and do the repairs. They are in breach of contract if they do not. However, don't just expect to get your earnest money back right away and walk away from this. Even if you refuse to sign the papers at closing that can't make that happen. Both parties have to agree in writing to cancel for it to be easy like that. If they are claiming you are wrong and claiming the repairs are done or chimney if working fine then it can tie things up until it is determined who is right and what was done. You may have to do something like take them to small claims court. Just be prepared for a possible small legal mess here.
I got what I feel is good advice from my landlord who owns several homes. He said:
"Don't nickle & dime a deal to death over small repairs otherwise you may lose out on the house of your dreams.
I lost a house once haggling over a $300 repair. The seller grew impatient with me & sold to someone else. If you really love the house then don't let a few hundred bucks come between you & a sale. It's really quite small in the scheme of things. Focus on the big picture. If the house is a good fit for you then all the little things can be fixed."
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I think the items your asking to be fixed sound very reasonable...her appliances, not so much, sorry.
It sounds like I'm pickin on you OP and I really just used your question to blow of steam. But when a buyer says they are getting a great deal, I do wonder why they then ask for the moon and the stars, esp. since you stated your seller is really barely getting by with this deal. Its so hard to buy and love a house, put a ton of money in it, then when you go to sell you break even. This hasnt happened to me, but I do feel for the sellers that are going through this.
