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Hello all, So we are preparing to buy our first home in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts, we are working with, in my opinion, the greatest real estate agent there is, she was recommended by a friend of the family with whom she had worked with for 30 years before retiring. (we joke that we're her charity case of year as she normally only deals with million dollar estates, and we're, um, not in that price range, by a lot)
The house we're looking at had been on the market for slightly over a year, the house was originally listed at $145k, then over the last year they lowered the price gradually to $125k. We were fully prepared to pay that price, but our realtor said it would be even nicer at $120k, so we offered $114k expecting to haggle and get to that $120k price, but to our surprise they accepted our low offer wanting to sell before the end of the year to avoid heating and maintaining over what are usually harsh winters, with the understanding they wouldn't be fixing any cosmetic issues or minor repairs. This is where I get confused.
She put a clause in our offer that made the sale contingent of our approval of the inspection, to give us an out. We have our inspection next week, and I know he will flag the roof, the last time I was there doing the water test (which failed, but the seller had a professional treat the well and got a passing lab score) I noticed the flashing on the chimney looked like it was damaged (peeling away from chimney) as well as a no longer used TV antenna on the roof that I'm concerned will leak. (attic is dry with no sign of water entry. yet.)
Is this something I can ask the seller to take care of? or get an estimate on my own, and try to negotiate the cost with the seller even though they said they wouldn't be taking care of any repairs? having a proper roof is kind of a deal breaker for me. I could care less about the $0.75 cracked wall plate in the bathroom, but the roof is fairly important. if it's just a few hundred to repair and get us through a couple more years, I couldn't write the check fast enough, but if we're talking several thousand to replace the entire roof, that's not something we could afford right away.
Thanks for reading my novel of a story, this whole home buying process is a lot more involved than I ever thought it could be, if it wasn't for our realtor, I'd have given up by now.
You said you were prepared to pay 125K for the house and you got it for 114K. Flashing is not a big expense. Since you got the house for 11K less than you were prepared to pay I would advise waiting until the inspector has done his thing and see what happens. There a million hypothetical scenarios but once the inspection has been done report back to us here and we will try and advise you.
You can ask for them to repair it. They may say no. If they are firm at $114, and you're cash strapped for that new roof, what you can do is write up the contract for more money with the plans of a "seller's concession". So, if roof is $6k, you tack it onto the $114k, and you can get the difference at closing or put down $6k less in cash at closing.
You can always ask and they can say yes, no, or give a credit (partial or full). Since they seem eager to get rid of the house, they might just give you something or fix it.
You're losing time, winter is almost here. Call a roofer now and have him inspect and provide you with an estimate to make it right. Your home inspection can be one inspector or ten. Find out how much it is before you try to decide how to negotiate repairs.
Ok thanks guys. it looks like I should wait till the home inspection on Wednesday to see what he says, I'll see if I can have the roofer who did a good job putting a roof on my mom's house last year come and take a look it and give me some written estimates.
As twodoor2 wrote, nothing ventured nothing gained if you don't ask. Once you have the home inspection results in hand, depending on what it says about the roof, you can share that with the seller and negotiate.
Your inspection should provide you with all the information you need. Let the realtor use it as ammunition to maybe get another thousand or two knocked off the price. Definitely get the repairs done as soon as you close. Time is important to you now with winter knocking at your door....
What you can ask for just depends on how the contract was written. I did one recently that was sold "as-is" and my seller would make absolutely no repairs at all. The buyers could have an inspection and cancel the contract based on the results however. Wait and see what the inspector reveals and it sounds like you have an agent that you trust to help you with the strategy.
If you saw the roof issue prior to your inspection, your offer should have been based on this knowledge that you might have to do repair to it. You can't go in at a low price because of condition AND ALSO ask for more repairs to be done after the inspection when you already were aware of issues prior to your offer. That's double dipping and not encouraged in negotiations.
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