Asking Seller to Pay for Repairs

[Ben E.]

My main question relates to asking seller to complete or pay for repairs.

I have a house under contract for $120k. It's a great location, most of the house is pretty nice (for the neighbor hood and price range). However, the inspection turned up 4 major issues.

1) electrical needs service upgrade + there is knob-and-tube wiring to the 2nd floor.

2) Chimney needs a flue + rebuild from the roof up.

3) Inspector estimated 2-3 year life on roof. It has cedar shingles underneath 3 layers of asphalt, so it will need a tear off replacement.

4) boiler is very old (1970s), but seems to work well

I suspect the first 3 items easily add up to $15k - 20k in near-term repairs. I already have to look around at other insurance companies as State Farm won't insure anything with active knob-and-tube.

I'm planning to use the property as a vacation rental as it has pretty good potential. That will also involve $3-5k in setup costs.

I'm paying cash and have funds to make the additional investment, but I think these big items were put off and it is reasonable to ask seller to pay part of repair costs. I can see that the seller paid $60k for the property in 2000. So they will still be doing well. Also, she is already living out of the area, but it is a tight market with low inventory of quality houses in this neighborhood.

I don't have experience with this type of negotiation, any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Ben

[Account Closed]

I don't really understand the strategy of getting a property under contract and ignoring obvious problems or components that are at the end of their lifespan. Any adult with reasonable intelligence and even moderate powers of observation should realize when a roof is within two years of end of like and a 40 year boiler is in need of replacement. I make my offers based upon repairs that are obvious. I guess I am just too simple and straight forward for my own good. I don't view the contract price merely as a beginning point of negotiation. Sorry, @Ben E., I am not picking on you or implying that you are deceptive. I just don't Locke this strategy when it is intentionally used by others.