Ever changed your mind after a home inspection--lots of problems found (clause, agent)
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I am under contract to purchase a home, and recently had the home inspection completed. The home inspector was excellent, and there were about 17 problems found, ranging from the serious (crack in foundation) to the non-serious (loose knobs on sink).
The serious problems included a large crack in the foundation, a rodent infestation in the attic, shoddy electrical work throughout the house, and furnace problems. On the plus side, the roof, plumbing, A/C, water heater, are all new, and no evidence of flooding or mold was found.
The inspector gave me the impression that overall, it is not a well-built house, despite the fact that it was built in 1980, which seems to be a good decade for it to be built in terms of quality. The problem is, we've been looking for a long time and this was the only house we were excited enough to put an offer in for. We were very surprised by all the problems, because on its face, it appears to be a very well-kept, well run house, but the home inspection dug deeper and revealed a bunch of problems.
Our enthusiasm for this house has gone from a 10 (extremely excited) to a 5 (kind of excited). However, we know that if we walk away, it's unlikely we'll find anything that we like as much. We've been seriously looking for 10 months already and there is very little inventory in our preferred suburbs. This house is the first offer we've put in for a house in those 10 months of looking.
We're conflicted as to whether we should walk away now or not.
Has anyone else had their home inspection really deflate their interest/enthusiasm for a house?
This is common. My suggestion is to get cost estimates for repairing the serious issues, present your concerns to the seller and see if they are willing to address them, then decide if you will cancel if they won't. Be sure you do this within the time frames required by your contract.
Is there a clause in your contract stating that the sellers have to address the problems found during inspection, or is the house being sold "as is"? Most contracts allow for this (I know this bc I am selling my house and there were a few items from the inspection that need to be resolved).
I was told by my agent that home inspectors almost always find "something" that needs to be addressed, even if it's something small, so as long as the sellers are willing to address the repairs, I'm guessing that this wouldn't be a huge problem. If it is being sold "as is", however, that's another story....
This is common. My suggestion is to get cost estimates for repairing the serious issues, present your concerns to the seller and see if they are willing to address them, then decide if you will cancel if they won't. Be sure you do this within the time frames required by your contract.
Yes, we are in the process of doing this. My realtor should have a document written up regarding this in the next day or so.
I guess I just feel really deflated. You get so excited about a house, and then all these problems are found--you feel overwhelmed. I am glad though that we had such a fantastic inspector who did a really thorough inspection.
When we bought the home we are in now, we had the inspection and it brought up things that allowed us to make the purchase contract null and void. So we said good-bye to that house because we had already found this house. We are still grateful that happened.
It really depends how much the repairs will cost, whether or not you have leverage to request them, the willingness of the sellers to do the repairs, and whether or not you will have to address more expensive consequences down the road. Take all those things together and decide if you love the home enough to make the work worth it.
Every home is going to have a multitude of repairs (unless it's new construction, I suppose, but even then...), so it becomes a matter of what you are willing to live with. Kind of like when you get married and know that you are marrying someone with all their flaws included, but hopefully you are aware of the big issues and are committed to working through them (even though other things will come up).
For us, the first house we offered on had a major sewer problem, which we might have been willing to deal with if the seller had been willing to root it out and let us get a second sewer scope down there to see the scale of the repair. She refused, however, and we bristled; we could have ended up on the hook for $20K if that pipe gave out a few years down the road. We walked, and in the end, we realized that we hadn't been as in love with the house as we thought, so he sewer saved us. With our current house, it's just as old and does have issues too, but nothing is a dealbreaker and the sellers have been willing to do minor repairs at our request (even though we had no leverage). We love the house so much, and we are willing to be patient while fixing it's issues over time.
I think it is exceedingly common for folks such as the OP to feel "deflated" when they are presented with anything short of a "glowing" inspection report. Unfortunately there is NO SUCH THING as "glowing" inspection report as EACH AND EVERY HOME form BRAND NEW to 'middle aged' to ancient will have a range of things that will be found by any competent inspector. It is unlikely that the seller will address all of the items found by the inspector, both because too many buyers get 'cold feet' even if these things are addressed and, when the inspector leaves an unspecific "bad feeling" in the minds of the buyer there is really no amount of "repairs" that can undo this needless trashing.
I mean honestly what the heck does "shoddy" mean? Are there specific code violation involving the electrical work that was done when the house was built? I rather doubt it as the VAST MAJORITY of houses built ANYWHERE in this country are inspected by local authorities for compliance to electrical code.
What kind of "rodent infestation" was found in the attic? It is winter. Were hibernating squirrels found? More likely some crazed animal worked there way into the space at some point over the last 30 years and left some mess. That is no big deal and reflects nothing about how well built the home is.
I would want a second opinion if I was a buyer OR SELLER on anything like a "crack in the foundation" as I have seen DOZENS of cracks in basements that are completely insignificant as they only indicate NORMAL aging of concrete as well as a handful of cracks that expert structural engineers determine are indicative of some more serious problem and if the expert was there to point out the difference it would be all but impossible to know which is which. As a seller I would not spend a penny addressing that unless a structural engineer said it was imperative and I would further want the buyer to sign releases and commitment guaranteeing a) the seller would be held harmless for any further issues that may develop down the road arising from sesmic issues or other problems beyond the scope of current repairs AND b) that should the buyer not consumate the deal any expenses related to the repair will be at least partially paid. As a buyer I would want my structural engineer to sign off on the repair OR simply take a cash payment from the seller to do the repairs with my own contractor / consulting engineer.
The OP really need to focus on what they have alread said: This house went from a "10" to a dud on the basis of ONE inspector who could very well be the biggest blowhard / drama queen in the whole region. The investment of 10 months of looking suggests the OP has some pretty high standards and there is a very real possibility that they will NOT find any home in their prefered area that is any better than the one they are perhaps wrongly overwhelmed about...
Is the foundation crack from floor to ceiling? How wide is it? Is there more than one? Did the wall shift perpendicular to the crack?
The problems you are listing are all expensive repairs. Your pluses are really not true gains. Unless you are getting a sweet deal - RUN AWAY NOW!!!
Bunk.
You haven't seen the inspection report.
Everything the OP has listed could involve minor costs.
Or it could be major.
To give a blanket statement saything that all the problems are expensive is absolutely wrong and misleading.
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