Renting for 6 mos now ready to buy-questions. (contingency, appraisal, clause)

[Jenn45]

We place an offer on a house 6 mos ago, offer was accepted,house inspection done,minimal issues,everything repaired. House inspection did not include airconditioning system(wintertime,inspector said he did not run ac)visual looked ok. We were unable to get financing at that time so we signed 6 mos lease. We are now ready to purchase but while living in house found some $$ issues. 2 ac units are not functioning correctly, main ac has hole in coil, unit is 12 years old, we had ac man patch coil temporarily. 2nd unit runs all the time, won't cool upstairs when it gets hot outside. 3 ac companies all verified, unit to small for area, not enough return vents, vents in rooms inadequate. Also some issues with major appliances needing repair.
Question is, should we get another home inspection? We would like to have these items fixed before buying house since it will be so $$. Since we already signed contract and previous issues were fixed are we stuck?
Thanks
Jen

[f_m]

I don't see how the contract could last for 6 months, unless it is written that way. Anyway, yes have it rechecked and ask for credit for the issues.

[Sandy Nelson]

Jenn45,
Have you reported the air conditioning defects to the seller/landlord? It's important that you disclose the defects to your landlord before you write another offer.
If you've had an inspection done 6 months ago and have been living in the home, I don't think you'll need to pay for another inspection. Have your agent add a clause into the contract that specifies that the seller shall have the AC units repaired and serviced by a licensed HVAC contractor.

Sandy

[tamitrail]

Did you put any stipulations in the contract saying that you would get the a/c inspected in the warmer months? What does your contract say about your inspection? Did you accept the inspection results or did you put a contingency on the a/c part?

[chet everett]

Sounds like you are now leasing the place that you decided NOT to buy. This can be an interesting situation and one that I was on the seller side of once upon a time. The twist here is that this house has issues that ARE NOT GOING TO BE CHEAP... (the place I sold was a ranch and just needed a more efficient A/C furnace which I knew anyhow, much cheaper).

The situation you describe with the A/C for the upstairs being undersized is pretty darned common, and with the return vent inadequacy it will NEVER be right unless you spend A LOT of $$$$.

An inspection is NOT going to go any good at all at this point, it is all about the owners willingness to come down in price. On the 1 hand the reason they were willing to rent to you was almost certainly driven by their desire to have SOME income, on the other hand they probably thought "sit this out until the buyers can get financing and/or the market improves and then I'll get the price I am hoping for"...

How bad do you want this house vs how bad the owner NEEDS to sell it???

My gut says that the seller will be reluctant to come all the way to take into account the cost of making EXTENSIVE changes to the A/C and repairing the other stuff BUT get the estimates, make you SURE that your financing is IN PLACE this time and let him or her know that you want the place but "it has to make sense for both of us financially".

You do NOT want him to pay for the A/C -- that is definitely not simply a repair and YOU want to select the contractor and get their guarantee to you that the work they do will be to YOUR satisfaction. One strategy to explore is that you do pay the price that you talked about before this came up, but the seller credits this money back to you at close. Technically it is money that does not go in his pocket(so he could just say no dice), but you should remind him that you also 'financing it' so it is not exactly free money to you (and this would have to be OK with your agents, if they are still in the picture, and consistent with an appraisal, and signed off by an attorney so that no body pulls a fast one...). {Note here: In a perfect world you have a big pile of cash and the seller can just lower his price and you can reach into your money chest and tell the A/C guys "redo everything cost no object" , but seems to be that if your financing fell through maybe you don't have the extra cash lying around. If you do have cash please do the scenarios to make sure that you can do this as cheaply as possible...}

If you want the house and the seller can accept a price that takes into account that "new information" that might be the way for everybody to walk away as happy as possible -- everybody wins a little, everybody loses at little.