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3 Reasons to Use a Repair Escrow

Ken Corsini
2 min read
3 Reasons to Use a Repair Escrow

I’m in the process of negotiating the sale of a property to a retail buyer right now and was able to use a repair escrow as a compromise to my buyer’s request to fix certain items. As is the case with many retail sales, the buyer performed an inspection and had a list of items they asked us to repair. The property was actually a home I’d been renting for the last few years and needed some updating – so I figured any buyer would make these types of requests. However, as I’ve written about before, I was not willing to simply risk $10,000 in repairs prior to closing without some sort of protection or recourse.

These particular buyers asked for a number of upgrades (including a new roof) that totaled upwards of $10,000. I had anticipated spending some amount of money on the property as a result of an inspection, but definitely had no intention of laying out 10K without any guarantees or recourse that the loan would close. As such, we went back to the potential buyers with an offer to put $7,500 in a repair escrow that they could use at their discretion once the property closed. (A repair escrow is simply an agreed upon amount of money taken out of the sellers proceeds at closing and held by the escrow agent or attorney to be used by the buyer for specific repairs made after the closing)

Three Things We Accomplished by Using a Repair Escrow:

1.) The repair escrow enabled us to avoid making the repairs and upgrades on behalf of somebody else. Having done this before, I’ve learned that the buyer always has a different set of expectations when it comes to any type of repair or renovation work. Inevitably, you end up in a squabble about the workmanship or the scope of what was expected. By giving them an escrow account specifically designated for repairs, you put the buyer in control of getting the work done and don’t have to hassle with possible misunderstandings.

2.) Creating a repair escrow also protects us from spending money on repairs before the property closes. Interestingly, I had a prior contract on this same property and the previous buyers demanded that we do similar repair work on the house prior to closing. They were unwilling to set up a repair escrow or put up non-refundable earnest money … so I told them to take a hike. I refuse to spend dollars on a property without some level of protection that I won’t get stuck with the repair bill and no closing.

3.) Using an escrow account is a great way to help the buyers avoid coming out of pocket for repairs. You may ask why we didn’t just lower our price by $7,500 and be done with it. That would be fine by me, but it doesn’t really help the borrowers. As a borrower, wouldn’t you rather roll $7,500 worth of repairs into your loan rather than come out of pocket for this money after the closing? Using the repair escrow is a great way to help your buyers get the repairs they want now without having to come out of pocket to get them.

I suppose many sellers don’t know better, and simply make repairs for potential buyers without any protections in place. This may work out some of the time, but I’ve seen more than my fair share of loans fall through and know first hand how easy it is to watch a deal fall apart. In the end, using a repair escrow to take care of needed fixes and renovation is a win win scenario for both the buyer and the seller.

Photo: Dean Shareski

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.