Tips for negotiating after home inspection

Hello everyone, we recently went through a home inspection and before I reach out to our agent, I want to make sure we make the right moves. Once you get the report, what do you do with the findings? Do you discuss them with your agent and come up with a strategy for negotiation, do you reach out to your lawyer (or is that too early).

Also, what has been your experience with negotiating the contract?

Thank you so much!

Re: Tips for negotiating after home inspection

It depends upon what was found during the inspection and with the report. Roof leaking, broken appliances, things not visual to you when you made your offer are things to negotiate. Obvious or older items the seller will tell you to scratch because those things should have factored into your original offer.

Re: Tips for negotiating after home inspection

Re: Tips for negotiating after home inspection

Unless your inspection found serious problems with the house - like structural damage or something you wouldn't have been able to see on your own - then there's nothing to do unless you want to walk away.

Re: Tips for negotiating after home inspection

My comment is probably to late to be of assistance to you, but my recommendation would be to review the report and then raise any potential concerns or things you want the seller to somehow repair/address with your agent (assuming you have a buyers agent representing you), not the attorney.

The agent is really in a better position to help you with this, because he/she has seen the house, was presumably with you for the inspection, and handled the negotiations up to this point. Even if there are items you could legitimately ask the seller to address, there are judgment calls to be made depending on the circumstances. As a buyer's agent, I change my approach in different circumstances. I would approach home inspections differently where my buyers are getting a great bargain versus paying full asking or above, but I would also tread lightly if I knew there were multiple offers and back up offers. I would approach things differently in a vacant home with an out of the area sellers (such as an estate sale) versus a seller occupied home. And the agent knows the tenor of negotiations and can perhaps get better results because of that than an attorney who knows nothing about the house, the negotiations thus far and personalities involved, etc.

As a realtor and an attorney, I try to make the attorney's life easy by sending a summary of the transaction (including any home inspection issues) after the inspection is done, everything is worked out, and we are ready to proceed to contract. It usually works more smoothly to have a fully negotiated deal in place for the attorneys to memorialize in the contract rather than having things in flux and multiple parties negotiating for you.

Also, sometimes things in the home inspector report may be unclear or sound worse than they are, so it can help to circle back to the home inspector for clarification (is the issue typical for homes of this type/age? Etc).

But many times, everything is fine (never perfect, but acceptable) and it's in your best interest to move forward without raising anything. It's hard to speak in generalities, because obviously some things must be raised. But don't feel like you have to negotiate things post-home inspection just for the sake of it. And if you do, realize that once you start negotiating home inspection items, you are renegotiating the accepted offer. And the seller can always decide to move on at any point and not reimburse you for the cost of the inspection. This is true in any case, until the cibstruction is signed, but home inspection negotiations opens the door for the seller perceiving the deal as "shaky."

Message edited 4/20/2015 5:02:59 PM.