How do sellers feel when buyers request environmental inspections and problems are found (contingencies, negotiating)

[doglover29]

I'm wondering how sellers feel when buyers request environmental inspections and problems are found. For instance, if I as a buyer get an inspector to do a radon test, and radon is found, and I decide not to buy the house because of that, then the sellers are required to then disclose that they have radon, and must possibly do something about it in order to have a better chance at successfully selling the house. How do sellers feel about these kinds of environmental inspections?

[wileynj]

Originally Posted by doglover29

I'm wondering how sellers feel when buyers request environmental inspections and problems are found. For instance, if I as a buyer get an inspector to do a radon test, and radon is found, and I decide not to buy the house because of that, then the sellers are required to then disclose that they have radon, and must possibly do something about it in order to have a better chance at successfully selling the house. How do sellers feel about these kinds of environmental inspections?

I wouldn't have an issue with it. It's standard in NJ. All new homes that are built here, have radon systems installed without even testing for it first! It's just adding a piping system..not a huge deal!

[shellytc]

No seller likes any inspection. It just can create issue they don't want to deal with.

If you are asking how they react on an offer... well if there are 2 offers and one has less contingencies (less inspections) than I would want that one... Does this make sense?

If you are negotiating to get a lower price, if I see too many contingencies, I may not be as negotiable on price... I need to save my powder in case the inspectors find something I need to remediate...

Shelly

[Barking Spider]

I guess about the same as if you went to the Dr. for an ear ache and he found skin cancer on your neck.

You weren't looking for it, didn't know you had it, but now that you found out about it, you will deal with it.

[jenkirk]

Hmmm... let me guess... like crap! Not only do they have to disclose and try to remediate, they also have the knowledge that they have been living in a possibly dangerous situation.

[tamitrail]

Radon is a standard test. I wouldn't buy a house without testing for it, nor would I be upset if someone wanted to test for it in a house I was selling. Radon remediation is not a big thing. Lots of houses have radon and as long as it's taken care of, disclosing it, should not be a problem. Some new houses are actually already built with radon remediation.

[NYMD67]

We bought a home about 5 years ago (have since moved from there) that was a brand new home (the owners had only lived there a year and were the original owners-had the home built).
We had a radon test done and the radon was extremely high , the sellers at that time were not aware that the area they were in had such high levels , for one reason or the other.
They were extremely upset to learn that the levels were as high as they were, but didn't hesitate at all to have the radon remediation system in and it took care of the problem within weeks.
We were able to move in and were grateful to the sellers for taking care of it prior to the closing.

I would expect any buyer to ask for any type of inspection,as we would do the same.

[Denton56]

Originally Posted by doglover29

I'm wondering how sellers feel when buyers request environmental inspections and problems are found. For instance, if I as a buyer get an inspector to do a radon test, and radon is found, and I decide not to buy the house because of that, then the sellers are required to then disclose that they have radon, and must possibly do something about it in order to have a better chance at successfully selling the house. How do sellers feel about these kinds of environmental inspections?

It's not that big a deal to fix the problem. I think everyone has that test now. I didn't care about it on my new house but the agent made us do it. It was fine. If it had not been fine, the seller would have to fix it.

[kwalk65]

We had our buyers do a radon test (they were from NJ ) and the 3 day test showed the reading to be 0.6. The EPA recommended level is anything under 4.0. My problem was that the buyers then felt because it showed minimal radon we should pay to have our home mitigated to a tune of 2k. I called the State Inspector for NC and the guy laughed with me and said that mitigating our home could not guarantee anything lower than what it already is.

Then the seller also did some Home Depot testing for the magnetic field in and around the test --- again they were not well informed on what they should be looking for. The gadget also tests for "para-normal" activity --- Just wait everyone we will soon have to disclose if our home has ghosts!!!

So, to answer the question, "No" as a seller I did not mind the environmental testing but what I DID MIND was the buyers not understanding what the test results meant ---Apparently they wanted the test to read negative. Eventually they backed off of the mitigation request and we sold the home to them but not after wasting huge amounts of energy on something that really was unreasonable by normal standards.

[SuSuSushi]

Originally Posted by kwalk65

Then the seller also did some Home Depot testing for the magnetic field in and around the test --- again they were not well informed on what they should be looking for. The gadget also tests for "para-normal" activity --- Just wait everyone we will soon have to disclose if our home has ghosts!!!

Wow, if someone started that kind of stupidity with me, I'd tell them that I wasn't interested in any offer from them. They just sound like a big freakin' headache waiting to happen.