Waived Inspection Contingency Backfired!

[Matt De Beer]

Made an offer on a condo in LA last month with a 5-day inspection period. After receiving a seller multiple counter offer, I removed the inspection contingency on my second offer. Ended up being outbid by the other buyer. Listing agent feedback was that seller viewed the removal of the inspection contingency as risky for seller which swayed the decision to the other buyer. Confused? Anyone else experience something similar?

[Evan Polaski]

@Matt De Beer, beyond the same confusion Ken and Chris have, were you outbid or just didn't get awarded the deal?

Outbid means the other buyer was willing to pay more.  And that is 99% of the time the primary contract term that gets deals done.  I would say in general, an inspection is worth about $10k to me.  If someone is paying $10k more with an inspection than the next buyer who doesn't have an inspection, then I would take the $10k, knowing an inspection will likely only cost me about $3-5k.

Also, I know CA has some weird laws when it comes to buying/selling real estate. Maybe, there is a law that buyers still have recourse on sellers for issues that arise, even if no inspection is performed.  I don't know this, but I remember my sister mentioning some weird things about her home sale when she recently sold in northern CA.