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We just sold our house recently. They didn't ask to have anything repaired, but they did ask for us to provide a 1 year home warranty. They didn't ask for a home inspection, however they asked if they could pay for an appraisal as they felt our asking price was too high and we felt their offer was too low. The appraisal came in closer to our asking price than their offer so they raised their offer to the appraisal figure. They were paying cash (no bank involved), no home inspection, and they gave us 80 days, rent free, after closing before they needed possession.
Since we had basically been trying to sell for nearly 5 years, the home warranty seemed like a minor expense on our part.
This all is scaring me as I'm going to have to sell and am not planning on doing anything other than basic maintenance and having a cleaning team and interior painting done (possibly driveway replaced, will see what realtor suggests) when I get to that point.
You can have your home inspected, and address issues up front before listing. Or you can have your realtor look closely at your home; he or she probably would have suggestions.
We did have our septic inspected before listing; we got that out of the way, so it wouldn't hold up a sale later.
But a lot of what will be asked will depend on the thoroughness of the home inspector. In our experience, they don't get everything.
I'm in the process of buying a home (currently in underwriting). I paid for a home inspection and the inspector gave me a detailed list with pictures of everything that was "wrong" with the home.
The home is 5 years old. It was 90% cosmetic or easily fixable things. I ended up just asking that an electrical breaker be replaced, (it was humming and sparking when shut off/on) and the hot water in the master shower be fixed (the high temp was coming in at only 54 degrees). And to fix the pressure in the guest shower. Everything else I could do myself.
The seller is putting in a whole new master shower because of a drainage issue, she even had me pick out the tile and style of faucets I wanted. It was $6500 and she paid for it with a check. I didn't want to get greedy arguing over a patched hole in the garage, caulking around the outside light fixtures, etc
They wanted me to replace the entire house with copper pipes, but I said no. They then sent me an intimidation letter from their law firm. Ultimately the deal fell through. Less than a week later, I accepted another offer for $15K more with no strings attached.
I haven't sold yet -- don't know if I ever will -- but I figure the buyers would want to select their own flooring, window coverings, interior paint, kitchen and bath improvements.
So why should I update it, and have potential buyers not like the result?
Without the improvements, they might demand that I lower the asking price because they have to spend more money, but I would reply that they are being given the opportunity to customize according to their own preferences.
If it's not a dump, in other words, then I shouldn't have to lower the price at all.
As for really small stuff, I would give them an allowance (lower the price a bit) to take care of it themselves. That way, I don't get stuck between them and a contractor who does shoddy work.
We are in the process of selling our house, and here's the stuff we did to get it ready:
- Replaced 6 double-pane windows which had started to "fog" inside. This was covered by the window warranty, since they were just under 10 years old, but it cost me about $1,000 in installation costs. Two were very big palladium windows.
- had all routine maintenance done...gutters, AC unit service, termite inspection, pest control, septic tank pumped.
- the entire inside had just been repainted 5 months before, so no worries there.
- had driveway and deck pressure-washed
- made sure everything was spotlessly clean, and purged out excess junky stuff from all closets.
The list of items requested after the inspection are all small things, and easy to fix. At first, my husband kinda had a meltdown about some of the items because they are petty and bothersome, but I reminded him that we can take care of all this stuff for far less than the amount of next month's mortgage payment on the house, the sale goes through smoothly, and then we're done with it.
Our realtor provided a home warranty that was in effect while the house was on the market, and we were able to use that to get the dishwasher repaired and the oven thermostat replaced, and it only cost me the $60 trip fee. Now that same policy it is going to pay for one of the inspection items...having the water heaters examined and possibly replaced because the inspector saw a little stain on the outside of one water heater and wrote it up as a possible problem. That's fine...again I only I pay $60. We are paying $534 to provide another year of the warranty for the new buyers. It's peace of mind for us too.
The inspector will point out tiny things that you may have become used to..loose faucet handle, a door that doesn't latch properly, misaligned cabinet doors, a little hole in the closet wall where something used to hang, insufficient grouting around tub or shower, etc. Look around with fresh eyes and you'll find them.
I haven't sold yet -- don't know if I ever will -- but I figure the buyers would want to select their own flooring, window coverings, interior paint, kitchen and bath improvements.
So why should I update it, and have potential buyers not like the result?
Without the improvements, they might demand that I lower the asking price because they have to spend more money, but I would reply that they are being given the opportunity to customize according to their own preferences.
If it's not a dump, in other words, then I shouldn't have to lower the price at all.
As for really small stuff, I would give them an allowance (lower the price a bit) to take care of it themselves. That way, I don't get stuck between them and a contractor who does shoddy work.
Anyone else share my point of view on this?
No, I don't agree.
You would have a very hard time selling your home if you don't keep up with what buyers are expecting and yet don't lower your price.
I've been looking for 4 months now in an area where the homes could have been built in the 1920's all the way to being finished last week. There are so many homes that are outdated and I simply don't look past the Zillow listing pictures. I do not want to buy a home and then have to gut the kitchens, bathrooms, replace flooring, tear out 1960s paneling, etc. Why not? Because when you update you have to bring the home up to current code. It's not just about not liking the kitchen cabinets, it's about the potential of replacing key plumbing and electrical issues.
If the house still looks like it did from the 1960s it had better be about $80 - $100k less than similar homes that have been updated.
We are in the process of selling our house, and here's the stuff we did to get it ready:
- Replaced 6 double-pane windows which had started to "fog" inside. This was covered by the window warranty, since they were just under 10 years old, but it cost me about $1,000 in installation costs. Two were very big palladium windows.
- had all routine maintenance done...gutters, AC unit service, termite inspection, pest control, septic tank pumped.
- the entire inside had just been repainted 5 months before, so no worries there.
- had driveway and deck pressure-washed
- made sure everything was spotlessly clean, and purged out excess junky stuff from all closets.
The list of items requested after the inspection are all small things, and easy to fix. At first, my husband kinda had a meltdown about some of the items because they are petty and bothersome, but I reminded him that we can take care of all this stuff for far less than the amount of next month's mortgage payment on the house, the sale goes through smoothly, and then we're done with it.
Our realtor provided a home warranty that was in effect while the house was on the market, and we were able to use that to get the dishwasher repaired and the oven thermostat replaced, and it only cost me the $60 trip fee. Now that same policy it is going to pay for one of the inspection items...having the water heaters examined and possibly replaced because the inspector saw a little stain on the outside of one water heater and wrote it up as a possible problem. That's fine...again I only I pay $60. We are paying $534 to provide another year of the warranty for the new buyers. It's peace of mind for us too.
The inspector will point out tiny things that you may have become used to..loose faucet handle, a door that doesn't latch properly, misaligned cabinet doors, a little hole in the closet wall where something used to hang, insufficient grouting around tub or shower, etc. Look around with fresh eyes and you'll find them.
I think this is a good idea. When I first looked at the home i'm buying now, I thought of how cute it was, how it had everything I wanted, but had no idea about the inner workings of the structure. I believe in a good home inspector because he/she can spot issues I would have never even thought of. The buyer's agent probably automatically submits a list of "fixies" to the seller's agent, which includes all issues (big and small) found by the inspector. It IS free to ask, so why not?
In the end, I only wanted the obvious safety issues fixed, I'm ok with the cosmetic deficiencies. I guess other's mileage may vary, and some buyers insist on every little crack be patched up, etc
In my last sale I was asked to remove two loblolly pines as their roots had started to rise and could cause foundation damage. It was a valid request. My sales agent knew someone in that business. Got it done for $600.00 (both) with stumps ground down.
We were asked to have a ceiling fan professionally adjusted so it wouldn't wobble and make a sound - and they wanted a receipt for it.
The problem was - it didn't wobble at all and the only sound it made was a whirring sound of..well, of a ceiling fan. We took a video of it and sent it to our realtor and said, "Send this to their realtor and ask her what the heck we're supposed to have fixed."
In fact, out of about ten things they asked us to fix, I think we only fixed two. I can't even remember the rest because they were so inane.
This happened to us. We had first time home buyers from $&@@ who, as I said, wanted the new Lexus when they were purchasing the used Ford, a 35 year old house. We had already done a lot of work, to include sump pumps to remediate a water issue in the garage that we knew would come up. Among what they wanted:
-Ceiling fan, light under it did wobble, we tried to fix it and couldn't. They wanted it fixed or replaced. Fine, we took down the large ceiling fan and replaced it with the $30 builders one from Lowes.
-A railing by some steps by the garage. Issue inspector pointed out was the height of the steps, not the need for a railing. It was only two steps and code only requires a railing with three steps or more. We said no. We heard their realtor said she'd pay for it. Driving by the place, it's never been done.
-We had a solar hot water system which was inspected and serviced before going on the market. They had to pull a specialist in to look at it who wanted us to add overflow valves and trays under both hot water heaters, none of which was required at time of installment. We said no.
-A bunch of little stuff which we did take care of, like a ground fault that didn't work outside.
-the best, or worse, which I still fume over was a drainage issue. They discovered water in our crawl space. We had it encapsulated years ago and thought it was okay so had not checked it. Our fault. We agreed it needed remediation but disagreed on the means. Buyer brought in his guy whose answer was escavate and seal three sides of the house, 70 ft. We had the company come in who took care of our garage and they gave us a quote which was $3800 less than their quote of $10,000. The buyer didn't like our guy. I saw the buyer, their realtor in discussions with ours out in the street after our guys inspection. Apparently the buyer was in tears of fear of mold for his baby. Said we were trying to take a cheap way out. No. We were taking a responsible way out. We were not going to budge over our persons quote, but the realtors, different offices but same company, wanted the sale to go through so our realtor made up the difference from his commission. By then we had nothing to go on so it went through. Since it was so close to closing we ended up handing over a certified check made out to the buyer which I regret to this day but apparently was the only way to do it. Bank would not allow an escrow for it. Now, why I really am ticked on this is when I've been by the place since then it's obvious they have not done the remediation work we paid for as there has been no disturbance of the foundation area. I truly think he used the money instead to take down a large grove of native hardwood trees in the backyard which turned a wooded lot into a typical empty suburban house lot. I keep being reminded it's not mine or my problem, but it did show how crazy inspections can get.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flamingo13
This all is scaring me as I'm going to have to sell and am not planning on doing anything other than basic maintenance and having a cleaning team and interior painting done (possibly driveway replaced, will see what realtor suggests) when I get to that point.
This has been addressed, but definitely go through your place with the agent to see what they suggest. Maybe, if you can, hire your own inspector ahead of time. If we had caught the water issue in the crawl space we could have saved so much money. Turned out the real reason it happened was negative landscaping over the years by the foundation that drained water there instead of away. If we had known, it would have saved us.
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