What to Do After Home Inspection

Question

What do I do now that my home inspections was completed and we found a few issues, ie. obsolete electrical panel and busted water heater. Can I renegotiate my offer, or have the owner pay for it. I didn't specify that my offer was contingent on the home inspection.

Lorraine Massillon · Answer

Thank you all for you advise I was able to renegotiate my initial offer and the seller agreed.

Barry Cohen · Answer

@Lorraine Massillon keep in mind that no matter what house you plan on buying there is going to be Some sort of issues that will come up during the home inspection. No house is perfect. You just have to decide how much of a deal breaker the issue is. Some issues can be more costly than others (like replacing an electrical panel). It all depends on the type of deal you think your getting. Good luck

Lorraine Massillon · Answer

Thank you Andre for the advice. I’m trying to renegotiate the offer. If the seller doesn’t agree. I will just let this deal go.

Andre Taylor · Answer

@Lorraine Massillon if you can try to get some estimates from contractors and then go re-negotiate the price. For future would i do for home inspections.. I bring out all my contractors, electrical, roof, foundation, plumber, carpenter, mold, etc. I have them come and look at the specfic systems because if there is anything wrong they can tell me how big or small the problem is and what I can expect to pay for it. Having a team in place helps you decide much faster on  walking away or going back to the table to negotiate a lower price.

Lorraine Massillon · Answer

Thank you all for your replies. To date I haven’t put any money down on the home. So I could walk away from from the deal.

Isaac White · Answer

You can purchase a home warranty. This warranty typically covers systems such as the electrical, heating, plumbing, etc. Ask your broker to give you the information for a home warranty (typically provided once an offer has been accepted) or if not working with a broker,  message me and I can give you the info for a national company that I refer my buyers to. Also in your contract it should state that you have "x" amount of days for inspections. You can renegotiate based upon  this new information if it is a deal breaker, and/or  request a seller credit for some of the repairs.

Peter Nikic · Answer

The way to look at this, is "what are you buying?"

If you had expected to buy the house "as-is", and it was discussed, then you'll need to buy "as-is" or don't buy it.

If the inspection uncovers something that you assumed was what you were buying, then you can ask the current owner to repair or replace it. I would say the obsolete electrical panel, you should accept, while you should expect the owner to replace or credit you at closing the cost of the water heater.

Think about it. You had no intention of buying a house with a busted water heater. right? So why should you accept it that way?

But if the house is not new construction, then it's likely that some of the items installed when the house was built, are most likely outdated. Since you're buying an older house, you should expect some items to be older. But make sure they are functional.

Jaron Walling · Answer

You can't legally do anything without an inspection contingency. Maybe the seller is flexible on the closing costs.