How And Why To Negotiate On A House After The Home Inspection

One crucial step you should take when writing an offer to buy a house is adding a home inspection contingency. This contingency not only gives you the right to get the house inspected, but it also gives you the right to void the contract if the house is not in the condition you were told it is in. If you get the inspection and find out there are issues, here are several things to know about negotiating the deal if you still want to buy a house.

Evaluate the issues

After the inspection occurs, the inspector will create a report with all the findings from the evaluation of the house. You should carefully read this over and analyze any issues that appear to be serious or costly to repair. As you do this, you may decide that the issues are too overwhelming for you to deal with, and you could decide to back out of the contract and find another house to buy. The other option is to keep going with the purchase of this home but aim to negotiate for the repairs the house needs.

Find out the costs and risks

If you decide to negotiate for the house and continue with the purchase of it, your next step should be asking for quotes for the repairs. As you receive quotes, you should also analyze any potential risks that might still be present even after the repairs are made. You should talk to at least two contractors about the repairs, simply to make sure that the quotes include completely repairing anything that needs to be fixed.

Change your offer and negotiate a new price

Finally, you should consider either asking the seller to pay for the repairs or asking the seller to reduce the price. If the seller is willing to pay for the repairs, you will likely need to pay the original price you offered for the house. If the seller prefers to have you take care of the repairs, they may be willing to lower the price of the home to compensate for the costs of fixing all the problems discovered in the home inspection.

After you find out a house has problems that you were unaware of, you have the right to negotiate if you had a home inspection contingency in the purchase offer contract. If you would like help or answers to your questions, talk to your real estate agent.

Share