After the Home Inspection

I spent today helping an agent evaluate a Home Inspection. We ended up with a 2 page list of repairs that she is going to be asking the Seller to do. That is the longest list of repairs I have ever seen. None of the proposed repairs were big things, it is just that there were a lot of them.

Here are the steps. After the Home Inspection, the agent sits down and reviews the report. Hopefully, the Inspector has a summary of items at the end of the report. That makes it easier to come up with the list of things that need to be addressed. The Buyer's Agent usually will send a copy of the report to the Listing Agent so that agent can also see the list and can begin anticipating what needs to be addressed. On one of my listings recently, we had all but one of the listed repairs completed before the Buyer's agent brought us the proposed Repair Amendment! That is unusual, but it does happen. In that case, I had a good Seller who had worked on getting the property ready to market before it was listed, so there weren't that many things wrong with the property!

So, the Buyer's Agent and the Buyer put their heads together and come up with a list of things that they believe are the most important to get fixed. That list of repairs is converted to a "Repair Amendment". The Buyer signs that document. Then that document is sent along to the Listing Agent to submit to their client.

Many times, what happens next is that the Seller will counter with a suggestion of "cash in lieu" of the repairs. That cash is represented in the deal as either a reduction in the sales price or as an increase in Seller's Contribution to Closing Costs. The best reason to take cash is that way the Buyer can have the work done after closing and can supervise the work.