Home Inspection Questions (Houston: sale, credit, selling a house)

[Winebrat]

So we are awaiting the home inspection on our house we are selling so we can get to Houstonfor a job relocation. I have never gone through this before, so am hoping for some feedback about the process and my rights as the seller.

Our house is "move in ready", so to speak. We had it inspected a few years back and by a structural engineer before finishing our basement to make sure there were no red flags to invest in before we spent money. Everything came up good and what was questionable we fixed for ourselves. The sale price on our home is rock bottom, below anything we ever thought we would ever sell this house for, so we are not willing to give any concessions if an inspector comes in saying something needs to be done. The house is only 10 years old and built better than most in the area.

I guess my question is, do I HAVE to fix or adjust the price of anything they might find? Can I just say "no, take it or leave it"? I know these people who are buying the house are in a HUGE rush to move in AND they have been house hunting for a long time and it took 3 weeks to negotiate the price as it is, so I don't think they would walk away. And quite frankly I know there is NOTHING wrong with the house so this is probably a moot point...

Thoughts?

[BLUEDIAMOND64]

If you stipulate in the contract "sold as is" then you are covered. If the inspector finds something, they the seller is required to fix it unless you had the clause "sold as is" put in there.

[KarenRice]

Even if it doesn't say "Sold As IS" you should be able say "No, we are not fixing it." It would depend on what options were chosen and approved on the contract.

[Winebrat]

I finally got the contract of sale from the relo company, so I saw the option for inspections, so I do feel better now. We were told to not put "as is" because that is like a red flag, even if there is nothing to be done. so we will just be saying 'no" if they find anything, which they shouldn't.

[KarenRice]

Winebrat - one thing though - would it be worth it to lose the sale? How long before another buyer comes along, and will they find the same issues? Sometimes it's easier to just say "Okay, " and give a credit or fix something than say "Nope, not gonna do it, take it or leave it..." I would wait and see what happens and what comes up before making up my mind.

[bloominscranton]

Can someone tell me if my information is correct? Even if a house is advertised as is and a buyer has an inspector come in and they decided the house is not worth it, they can still get out of the contract and get their deposit back with no penalty?

[pennsynative]

You can certainly refuse to pay but I believe they can also decide not to buy it due to the issues that may come up. Do you know what option they selected in reference to home inspections? Our buyers chose the option that said they would pay the first $500 and then anything after that would be negotiated between us.

We were almost relocated to Houston, too, but were able to pass on it since our child is still in college here. Best of luck to you.

[KarenRice]

Unless the contract specifically states that the buyer agrees to purchase the property no matter what the inspection report reveals....yes, the buyer can use the results of the inspection to be released from the agreement of sale.

The way my clients have handled "as is" basically is this - they will not ask the seller to fix anything or ask for any credit - they will either take it, or leave it.

[Winebrat]

I am confident our house doesn't have any fixes, honestly what I fear is fabrications, or the inspector not being knowledgable about some of the design elements in our house. But we will see. We are in no rush to sell, but the buyers are in a rush to get in before school, so doubt they would pull out over something small...of course they have yet to even schedule the inspection, which is irking me greatly, because they only have 2 weeks until the point that we will not be out by closing due to their foot dragging...we'll see.

[shewhale]

We bought a house in MT. Top 2 years ago.......Housemaster did the inspection, and Rural Septic did the Septic inspection.......(due to my husband purchasing a home awhile ago with septic problems, he wanted a FULL/COMPLETE inspection)..... Housemaster was great, very thorough.....Dominic Passante did a great job (Realtors hated him)......Rural Septic did an extensive test, and $600 later, we had the best septic in town (said they never saw one pass that kind of test before, they were shocked)..............needless to say, our neighbors ripped all the trees down, and built a house.......so in one year, we were selling.........We bought a new house, (lots of privacy) 2 miles away...........We hired Housemaster again, but Dominic was gone, it's a new couple running it (How different could they be, Right? HA) They basically turned the water spickets on, and passed the place.........my husband had to show them, that the porch had dropped an inch..........they didn't even notice it.............So if you are selling a house, hire housemaster....if you are buying one, DON'T HIRE THEM!!!!!

Now as for RURAL SEPTIC, we figured with the best septic in town, we had NO WAY OF LOSING THIS SALE (Right? HA)...... Now all of a sudden, WE HAVE THE WORST SEPTIC IN TOWN. (One fricken' year later) Needs new septic, Blah, Blah, Blah............about 5 to 6 Thousand dollars....So I said I wanted a second opinion....When I said that, he wrote in his statement to the buyers, that the septic NEEDED to be replaced........So of course, now we can't get it fixed, now it needs to be replaced, or the buyers (or future buyers) won't even look at it......So I called around, one other place said 5-6 thousand, another said 3 thousand, and the one we went with Jeremy Kishbaugh did it for $2,000.......and did a good job..........ALL 3 SAID THAT THE SEPTIC, BEING IN THAT CONDITION, WAS LIKE THAT 1 YEAR AGO............IT SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN PASSED WHEN WE BOUGHT IT..................Which leads me to believe, He knew the old owners................

DO NOT USE RURAL SEPTIC...........PLEASE MAKE THEM GO OUT OF BUSINESS..........THEY DESERVE IT................