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Well we had that guy that offered 35,000 off of asking and we countered. He came up 5,000 and then said he was going to walk away. If you recall we also had a party that wanted us out in two weeks. We said we could do it if they came within 10,000 of our asking price which the agent said she could work with. My agent called the other guy's agent and told her what was going on .
Well the showing with the quick close people got cancelled because they ran into a hiccup with their buyer. It seems they came to a verbal agreement about something and then got it in writing. Their buyer hasn't initialed it yet and has started talking about looking elsewhere and now there is silence on their end. Weird, since they did all the inspections and financially are ready to go. So my pb's agent said they didn't want to get us in the middle of this and she suggested her people cancel the showing and get things taken care of. Which was great of the agent.
So we were disappointed. But, were very grateful the agent didn't still have them come through knowing there was an issue. Well that guy came back yesterday and came back with another offer. This time it's 15,000 away from our asking price. It's less than we wanted..but we break dead even at this point. My husband was a little weary of it ..but we discussed it and I told him to take it. We would be done and we could move on. This guy wasn't going to negoitiate any further we feel. Anyhow, we took it. We just also told our agent to mention that we can't put in any more money into the house, so please don't nickel and dime us on the home inspection.
That is what I am fearing now. I think he is going to try and get everything he possibly can and just ask for all those little stupid things home inspectors find. We have never ever nickel and dimed people on the home inspection. If it was major, yes we asked for it..but not little things. So we will see. My husband is really nervous about that part.
Anyhow, I feel a tad relieved. We are signing the contracts tonight. My agent is trying to get in touch with those other people to let them know we are very close to a ratified contract. Anyhow we are off today to go look at houses for us.
Ha, I am almost one of those evil buyers out there. I have learned a few things though..and I told my agent that I want to make sure we are giving feedback to all the houses we go through..
Well, if he comes back with a list from the inspection, just say no. We had a similar situation with our house- we were taking less than we wanted, but were still happy with the sales price, and we told our agent that we didn't want to get nickel and dimed on the inspection. He assured us that there wouldn't be any problem, that the buyers really wanted the house, and appreciated us taking their offer. Sure enough, the inspector found a few issues, and a few days later we got a letter from the buyer's attorney requiring that we address them at our cost (probably $1,000 or less, but more the principle than anything else). I told our lawyer to write back that we weren't doing a single thing, and called the agent to tell him the same. The agent called the buyer, and it turns out that the buyer was OK with not having anything fixed- his frikkin' lawyer wrote the letter all on his own! Talk about trying to kill a sale.....
In the end, we didn't fix anything, the buyers were happy, and the closing went well. So, don't give in if you don't want to.
We just also told our agent to mention that we can't put in any more money into the house, so please don't nickel and dime us on the home inspection.
That is what I am fearing now. I think he is going to try and get everything he possibly can and just ask for all those little stupid things home inspectors find. We have never ever nickel and dimed people on the home inspection. If it was major, yes we asked for it..but not little things. So we will see. My husband is really nervous about that part.
We are buyers who just finished up the inspection part...it was "interesting" to say the least.
Remember, inspectors are going to find every little thing & make a ton of "recommendations". The inspection report may or may not come back making your home sound like the money pit. Depends on what you guys did prior to the sale to update & fix up.
Anyway, we came back with a list of repairs. The seller was anything but pleased. At the same time, we are not a cash cow & thought the purchase price justified our list.
After going through the inspection with the inspector & our agent, we realized that the number priority in an inspection BY FAR is mold & safety hazards. There was possible mold in our report that turned out not to be mold after we got the mold remediation guy out there.
The thing we were adament about were any safety hazards. There was a circuit breaker box that was overfused w/ 20 amps & should be 15 amps. There was also a small leak in the patio roof & a cracked window in the garage.
That was all we ended up requesting; 3 things.
The rest of the "recommendations" go with the age of the home & are not safety hazards. We will take on those as cash flows in & as dictated by the need to repair/replace.
Still wish they could have budged a little more but hey, it's part of the process. We still feel that we got an acceptable price on the home & the safety hazards were fixed.
No home can be 100% perfect, new or used. Just make sure it is a safe & secure home that your buyers are moving into...for as they say, karma comes right back around
Congratulations! I hope everything goes well with the inspection. We were worried about the inspection, because we were selling for less than we paid and were going to have to borrow money to pay for our move and a couple pieces of furniture we needed. However, our buyer came back with EVERYTHING on the list of concerns! We came back with what we thought we could afford to fix and should have to fix (about $300 worth of stuff instead of $800) and it worked. You never know what will happen and what people will agree to if you are reasonable and polite about it. Which I'm sure you would be because I know how hard you have been working to get out of there.
First off congrats! The 1st step is complete (agreeing on price).
Now comes the part where you really sweat it out. The inspection
Even in this market, I think most people would be reasonable. You just gotta remember that the inspector WILL find things that you miss or don't even know about. Its his/her job to do it. All I can say is go through the place w/a fine tooth comb and don't leave anything to chance (within reason of course)....get the punchlist items fixed before hand...
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
6,957 posts, read 22,309,298 times
Reputation: 6471
What kills me is that people make offers below asking price and then want a perfect home delivered to them. Guess what kids. Your home wasn't perfect from the first day they started building it! Your home hasn't gotten any better over the years either.
Imagine buying a used car and insisting that all the nicks and dents are fixed, a new engine installed, don't forget new tires and of course the interior coffee stains on the seat need to be fixed also.
I bought my home "as is" and got a great deal on it. 6 years later, I've replaced the roof, demolished the old rotting deck and replaced it, I just finished installing 7 new windows to replace the ones that the seals broke on.
I truly believe that a home inspection is only for the buyer to know exactly what he might want to start fixing and/or decide that there is too much for him to do. The whole concept of asking the seller to pay for repairs is something I think is wrong.
BTW we recently closed a transaction where we ended up having 3 different home inspections. All 3 inspections were different with different problems discovered and different solutions proposed. As a seller, (or even as the seller's agent) I'd tell the buyer to inspect away and then act like an adult, Mommy is not here to hold your hand.
Hmmm that ended up being quite a rant huh?
Last edited by DMenscha; 10-28-2007 at 12:14 PM..
Reason: spelling
What kills me is that people make offers below asking price and then want a perfect home delivered to them. Guess what kids. Your home wasn't perfect from the first day they started building it! Your home hasn't gotten any better over the years either.
Imagine buying a used car and insisting that all the nicks and dents are fixed, a new engine installed, don't forget new tires and of course the interior coffee stains on the seat need to be fixed also.
I bought my home "as is" and got a great deal on it. 6 years later, I've replaced the roof, demolished the old rotting deck and replaced it, I just finished installing 7 new windows to replace the ones that the seals broke on.
I truly believe that a home inspection is only for the buyer to know exactly what he might want to start fixing and/or decide that there is too much for him to do. The whole concept of asking the seller to pay for repairs is something I think is wrong.
BTW we recently closed a transaction where we ended up having 3 different home inspections. All 3 inspections were different with different problems discovered and different solutions proposed. As a seller, (or even as the seller's agent) I'd tell the buyer to inspect away and then act like an adult, Mommy is not here to hold your hand.
Hmmm that ended up being quite a rant huh?
You see it throught the perspective of a seller (or at least presented your rant that way). How about seeing it through the buyers eyes?
"asking price" doesn't automatically mean the house is worth "asking" in alot of cases. So, right there you could be dealing w/an "inflated" price. Just like what burns me up is this term "below market price". That makes absolutely no sense. Think about it, if a home was priced "below market price", wouldn't there be multiple bidders to bump it up to "market price"? Or if I was the realtor, I'd buy it and sell it at "market price" (whatever that is..)
What kills me is that people make offers below asking price and then want a perfect home delivered to them. Guess what kids. Your home wasn't perfect from the first day they started building it! Your home hasn't gotten any better over the years either.
Imagine buying a used car and insisting that all the nicks and dents are fixed, a new engine installed, don't forget new tires and of course the interior coffee stains on the seat need to be fixed also.
I bought my home "as is" and got a great deal on it. 6 years later, I've replaced the roof, demolished the old rotting deck and replaced it, I just finished installing 7 new windows to replace the ones that the seals broke on.
I truly believe that a home inspection is only for the buyer to know exactly what he might want to start fixing and/or decide that there is too much for him to do. The whole concept of asking the seller to pay for repairs is something I think is wrong.
BTW we recently closed a transaction where we ended up having 3 different home inspections. All 3 inspections were different with different problems discovered and different solutions proposed. As a seller, (or even as the seller's agent) I'd tell the buyer to inspect away and then act like an adult, Mommy is not here to hold your hand.
Hmmm that ended up being quite a rant huh?
I believe the buyer is paying a lot of money for a product and they deserve that product that is in good condition, structurally safe and sound.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
6,957 posts, read 22,309,298 times
Reputation: 6471
I quoted my original post in a new thread.
Yes the buyer is paying a lot of money and yes they should get what they pay for.
I almost bought a home that had a HUGE amount of structural and non-structural work to be done on it. My offer reflected that. I didn't make a full price offer and then throw the seller a punch list that said you do it. The home I bought the seller game me a 9K credit to fix the roof based on an estimate he had received. I tore the whole thing off and replaced it (with my labor) for 11K. The deck I replaced was so bad, I had to prop up temporarily to keep it from tipping over. I had to demolish a part of it almost immediately as it was that far gone. Should I have taken another 16K off of my offer? would it have been accepted? I just think you have to take some responsibility for maintaining and improving a home, It's part of the joys of home ownership. It's what keeps Home Depot and Lowes in business too
Structurally safe and sound is fine, but I've seen too many non-structural and non-safety items called out in inspections. Is the furnace 15 years old? well it's going to need replacing soon. Is this a safety item? If it's spewing carbon monoxide into the home definitely. If not, the market/offer/selling price should reflect that. I had a buyer who wanted all the screws in the switchplates turned to be vertical and thought the seller should hire an electrician to come out and make it so. Give me a break!
CJ is absolutely correct, If the home needs some deferred maintenance done to bring it to the point of normal wear and tear, (which is where the market should be) then the price should reflect that.
Look me up in the other thread, apparently I've formed an opinion
Yippy skippy! Congratulations to you! Here's hoping all goes well with the inspection!!!!!!
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Which was great of the agent. 
