Taking the money off the top and lowering the sales price is indeed an option in some, but not all situations. A buyer's interest in agreeing to this option depends upon both whether they have the cash to do the repairs (some folks are in a depleted cash flow situation at moving time)and the stomach they have for calling up repair people and getting the work done. Some have the time but not the money, others have the money but not the time. In most cases it's best to get known repairs out of the way prior to going on the market.

I thought I did get everything out of the way before going on the market, but I'm not a whiz at building codes, completely forgot in the 5 years i was here about GFI outlets, Have not ever been on my roof, so I didnt know 17 roof tiles are cracked (I have about 30 in my garage), Leaky bidet faucet (never turned it on), 2 pieces of wood rot (never looked that far up), needed a self closing door from the inside of the house to the garage, romax to be put under the under cabinet lighting and I painted a few windows shut (never have a cool breese in florida) septic tank flande crack. Just little things I never thought of. So I have had it all fixed. But I'm just wondering if another inspector comes out and finds something the first one didnt find wouldnt it be better to take money off the selling price then giving a credit after closing, either way they save money, like you said assuming they had extra cash to do repairs? just wondering....

"needed a self closing door from the inside of the house to the garage,"

Really, sounds that a silly picky item.

You can always try. But like annainpa said, they might not have the money. I'd say give it a shot next time. If they are looking for 100% financing, usually they don't have a lot of cash.

Hopefully your realtor knows the laws in your state but it's worth a doublecheck. We just found out it's illegal in OR to get cash back or credit at closing. THe best you can do for upfront dollars is have a seller pay your closing costs> Otherwise you can to some tax credits or lower the list price. For us as buyers, we don't mind the hassle to get it done right, but dont' want to shell out another $5-10K in repair costs as soon as we move in if we didnt' factor it into our orig offer. When we sold, we got everything in great shape and the one cracked tile we missed the buyer asked us to fix, we said no, and it wasnt' a deal breaker.

If yuo lower the price the buyer cannot put the cost of the repairs into the mortgage.
That said, any buyer who lets the seller make the repairs is a fool.
Most selelrs take the lowest bid to get the work accomplished.
There ae not a lot of 'quality' clauses in the building codes.
New water heater?
Do you buy the 2 year unit or the 5 year unit?

I agree the inspector for that buyer was here from 2pm to 7pm and he went through my house with a fine tooth comb, even found that I needed plastic romax stuff around the wires for the under cabinet lighting, I had a real electrician do the work, i was floored, yes and i had to buy at HD one of those things you put on a door at the top to make the door close by itself, he also said I needed to caulk all the windows, he even mention esthetic things, which looked like negatives to the buyer Im sure. Like the he added in his notes, the pool could use re marciting but its just esthetics. Well i knew that and got a quote for remarciting, 1650.00 ok i could do that, but marcite isnt the cool thing anymore, everyone around here is doing marcite or pebble tech. So I figured Id leave it and let the buyer put in what they want. Theyll figure that into their asking price. He also said maybe one of my gutters wasnt on right because there was water marks...what ever. Anyway that contract didnt go through, but it was nice of them to give me a copy of the report so I can fix what ever is on there. And yes he had incredible prices to get things fixed and yup Im using my handyman to fix everything...

no i didnt know you could not give a credit after closing, glad I asked about that...

It can save you tax money, but could shaft the buyer if they're right at 80% LTV. Drop the V and they could be in PMI land.

I'll have to remember that bentruler, these particular people were putting 50% down, my home is listed for 1.3. My begining question about this thread was really about the commision on the realtors end thats all. Just that I was paying commision on money I had to give back as a credit to the buyer thats all. Believe me I would like to make it as easy as possible for someone to buy, but then again, it all blew up over financing...

We just found out it's illegal in OR to get cash back or credit at closing.

I don't believe that it is illegal in OR (where I also live) to get cash back or a credit at closing - so long as it is documented and disclosed to the lender, and the lender agrees.. Otherwise it can be considered mortgage fraud. There are been cases where homes were sold, often with 100% financing, then the seller gives back a large sum of money after closing. This is defrauding the lender.