It is reasonable to expect safety issues to be repaired. To be fair to the seller, many inspections report issues that are not really issues. Make sure each is a true concern, then request the repair.

I agree that inspection reports can include a lot of things that don't need repairs, are cosmetic or simply FYI notations. You want a list that tells you more about your house, even though it may seem overwhelming at first.

You list some things which could be FYI (location of the furnace, for ex.) but you can't tell that without seeing it. Have a heating/AC inspection done and get bids on necessary repairs. Have them comment on whether the current location is dangerous (any wall discoloration?) or would that simply need to be changed when the furnace is replaced, etc.

With the possible exception of the furnace location, I would expect to have these issues repaired prior to closing or to promptly repair them myself. Your lender may require some of them to be addressed prior to closing (faulty wiring and furnace not working properly at the top of that list). The advise I've been given and seen play out with others is that it is often better to get a reduction in price or money back at closing for repairs (escrow is sometimes required) so you can be in charge of how the work is done. Some sellers will take the cheapest possible route and wind up leaving you to redo things -- possibly paying to undo what they had done plus do the repair right.

Insulation and drainage are things that need repairs and updates from time to time. You may be looking at those sort of issues, but depending on the location of the house, the roots in the drain line and other factors, these could be minor repairs or major concerns and expenses. We can't tell you if these are hundred dollar issues and a thousand or few total or tens of thousands. Once the inspector tells you about a concern, if you don't know enough to evaluate it, you need to make one or more calls to get evaluations/opinions and repair bids -- perhaps two or three on each issue, so you can know how serious the issues are, how urgent the repairs and how expensive the repairs.

Once you get some bids and go back to the seller, you will know whether to go forward or go elsewhere. The repairs and conditions noted in your inspection generally have to be disclosed now that the seller knows about them. It is often better for a seller to negotiate with a reasonable buyer in hand than to wait for another to come along. You will either have reassurance that the house is not falling apart - just needing a little normal TLC, or have serious doubts and know to keep looking.

Forgot to address the lack of heating and "bedroom" in the basement. If the house was marketed with that room counted as a bedroom, then it probably has an impact on the pricing. Price per square foot is one consideration, but number of bedrooms has an impact on desirability of a home and the price. My current home was listed as a 4 BR, but they were counting the gameroom with glass French doors to the main hall as a bedroom. Between than and the pink wallpaper and carpet, it sat vacant for 6 months and had at least 2 price reductions. It does matter. That could be a major issue -- maybe a price adjustment, maybe a future heating upgrade. Ask the heating /AC guy about what it would take to run a duct or supply heat down there. Evaluate that as well as what the lack of that additional BR mean for the house and what you are willing to pay.

have found the home of our dreams.

==>>>>

well.. after that list.. do you see a nightmare forming.. or is it still your dream ...

what does your contract indicate happens on a failure of the inspection ... its usually only an escape for you to cancel the contract ...

i doubt it reopens negotiations ... but maybe it does in your area ...

if so.. put a number on everything ... and they either fix them in advance ... or the price is reduced accordingly ....

as a real estate atty.. my dad always said ... there are more perfect houses out there... just keep looking... unless you want this headache ...

IMHO ... dump and run ...

presume new sewer line... 3 to 7 grand in my area .. augering it out is not good enough
new furnace... 5 to 7 grand in my area ... maybe new a/c????
electrician to visit attic.. lets start at a grand ... unless you can do it ..
plumber for kitchen and bath ... who knows ...

these are bargaining points ... or fixed by the seller ...

i would run ... ken

ps: smoke alarms are not an issue .. anyone can put a screw in the wall

I have a bit of a spidey sense tingling there. Homes on septic systems have those systems rated by the number of bedrooms that a house has. A 5 bedroom house has a larger system than a 3 bedroom house. And it's why you see a lot of illegal bedroom conversions in some places. The ground won't actually perk for a larger house to be permitted. That greatly impacts a home's value, and potential future value.

I'd check the permits pulled for this house. If those rooms were illegal conversions, that, coupled with no insulation (really? none?That's so code defiant idiotic as to defy reason!) and the grading towards the house point to a lax to non existent code requirements for building in that area. That's scary. Especially in light of the nature of the things that the home inspector could see. I always figure that they catch maybe half of the issues, and the other half will become apparent after living there for a half a year or so.

There's enough here to make me get out of any contract unless I was a really handy person. The no insulation thing blows my mind completely. I don't even see how this house has a CO!

I'm suspecting that there is insufficient insulation rather than no insulation -- or an area with no insulation rather than the entire attic.

My comments:

1) Drainage pipe is overgrown with roots
>Is this an older house? You might be able to augur out the drain and fend off the roots for a while, but it will eventually need to be replaced.

2) Negative drainage in yard
>Is there evidence of water in the basement or does it just puddle in the yard? Two very different problems.

3) Furnace does not meet code, it needs to be 6 inches away from the wall, it is only 3in (fire hazard)
>I'd have an HVAC company look at it and comment/recommend.

4) Electrical wiring problems in attic (fire hazard), and faulty outlets in kitchen and basement
>What type of problems? What type of faulty? It could be something simple (a couple junction boxes in the attic that need covers, a loose wire on the outlet) or something more major (splices everywhere with no boxes, no ground wires in outlets)

5) leaking kitchen pipe under counter, leaking bathroom diverter for shower
>These are a concern. Are they leaking behind walls/under floors? Could have rot and/or mold to deal with.

6) No heat source in downstairs bedrooms (does not qualify them as bedrooms according to inspector.)
>Are these basement bedrooms? Who would construct bedrooms without heat vents??? Get the HVAC guy to comment on these as well.

7) Furnace "short cycles" and doesn't function properly
>HVAC guy quote.

8) no insulation in attic
>If this is an older house, this isn't a surprise. Our 1920 house had next to none. A few hundred bucks and half a day filled it up with blown-in fiberglass. I'd DIY this, not put it on the seller.

9) only 1 smoke detector, and 0 carbon monoxide detectors. There should be 5 of each. (4 bedroom house).
>DIY this.

What year is this house? That would change how I'd perceive some of these issues. And, as others have said, some of these may be minor fixes or they could be major fixes.

I would check with your homeowner's insurance about the furnace code violation. I f you know it is a violation and don't repair it, if there is a fire involving the furnace, would your insurance company deny your claim?

bspring2 - In addition to the comments above and since you say you're a first time buyer, I'll offer this point: Be aware of time limits in your purchase contract. You'll generally have a fairly short time to either cancel the sale based on the inspection findings, or negotiate adjustments with the seller, or let the contract take full effect (unless, of course, there are other contingency clauses).

If you fail to act within the allowed time (sometimes as little as 48 hours) you may lose any right to cancel or negotiate under the inspection clause.

Good luck!

My gut reaction: RUN! Exercise your escape clause and tell them it has too many problems, starting with the illegal bedrooms, to deal with.

There will be other houses.

The fact that there are so many brainless problems indicating poor workmanship and no planning ... furnace installed wrong, never ran heat to the "bedrooms", etc. And poor maintenance ... the leaking stuff, the clogged drain, the bad drainage. All makes me smell a money pit opening up.

Don't let your desire to end the househunting process lead you into the pit.

I've been on hundreds of home inspections. Almost every first time home buyer reacts this way. First, a home inspection is mostly to educate you on the workings of the house. It is not supposed to be used as a renegotiating ave, UNLESS, something major shows up that could not be seen before the inspection. That being said, here are my thoughts.

1) Drainage pipe is overgrown with roots

How does the inspector know this? Are there actually roots coming out of the drain somewhere? This is probably the biggest concern of your whole list.

2) Negative drainage in yard

Negative drainage? What does this mean? Poor drainage? Does this mean in the spring and winter you may have a wetter lawn than in the summer? Is this causing a problem in the house somewhere?

3) Furnace does not meet code, it needs to be 6 inches away from the wall, it is only 3in (fire hazard)

Does the furnace meet code for the year built and installed?

4) Electrical wiring problems in attic (fire hazard), and faulty outlets in kitchen and basement

What does this mean? Most attics don't have electric except for a light bulb, is there an extension cord that shouldnt be there? Kitchen, No GFCI Outlets? They are $18 a piece and any homeowner can do it.

5) leaking kitchen pipe under counter, leaking bathroom diverter for shower

Is this the kitchen sink pipe? Easy fix, seller could easily repair, same for shower

6) No heat source in downstairs bedrooms (does not qualify them as bedrooms according to inspector.)

Are they legal bedrooms and were they included in the listing as bedrooms or are they just rooms in a basement being used as bedrooms by the homeowner?

7) Furnace "short cycles" and doesn't function properly

Seller should have furnace serviced.

8) no insulation in attic
I would ask for a credit for this.

9) only 1 smoke detector, and 0 carbon monoxide detectors. There should be 5 of each. (4 bedroom house).

In my state, this is mandatory, seller must install prior to closing. If not mandatory in your state, this is $200 fix.

NO HOUSE IS PERFECT! NONE. I saw a list of 50 items on a brand new construction one time. I would get more specifics on the furnace, (is it to code for the house? Home inspectors are not code inspectors, they should not even be commenting on what is code and what is not code)

I agree so much with what Linda says! I also wanted to add that you may just want to give the inspector a call. Some of them may not be helpful, but my experience has been they are very willing to tell you what things are minor and what to be concerned about. Worth a try!

The last house I sold, the inspector told the buyers my central heating system did not work. I don't know why he said this, it worked fine. In fact, it was winter at the time, didn't they notice the house was warm? I had to pay my ac/heat man to come out and verify that it worked which was a waste of my time and money since there wasn't a single thing wrong with it. My point is that sometimes what's listed as issues really aren't.

Our current home, the heating to the entire basement was turned off during inspection (inspector noted). We decided to offer anyway because the house was a good deal (our thought was if there really was something wrong, we could install electric baseboard).

Turns out the seller just had it unhooked for maintenance and the whole thing worked just fine.

The house in general however was very well maintained, which gave us confidence that we could fix any issues the inspector noted.

OP - what have you decided to do?

Hollynia, the same thing happened when my buyers had my house inspected, their inspector said the electric back up furnace to the heat pump wasn't operational. Only, the computerized thermostat was smarter than he was and he didn't know how to turn it on to test.

I had the heating cooling company come, inspect, submit a report that all functioned normally and no service needed. My dime. Almost 2,000 of my dimes ;)

Edited to add 'electric back up'

This post was edited by morz8 on Thu, Jan 8, 15 at 19:03

Negative drainage? What does this mean?

that water drains towards the house foundation instead of away from it.

Here is a link that might be useful: negative drainage

Ahhh, heard that a million times too. Means you need to regrade from the foundation out to pull the water away from the house. Also, not a huge deal. I swear they make this stuff sound so bad. People dont like to use the agents recommendation for an inspector. The reason I love using my inspector is because he tells buyers all these things but also explains it to them so it doesnt sound like they are buying a dump!

I would RUN also. Some of those issues sound very problematical even for obtaining homeowner's insurance. Is there to be a mortgage??? There might also be an issue for some lenders.

In some markets the house being in not so great shape is pretty much a given.... desireability of neighborhood, history of neighborhood (eg lots of "deferred maintenance" and/or landlord neglect), are you up against house flippers who will bite at any darn thing no matter how rough.

So the question becomes .... what does it cost to correct the problems and are you able to either a) absorb the cost or do it yourself of b) get a price reduction to cover it. No you dont want to jeopardize the sale by nickel and diming the seller to death... but if the total cost runs up into the thousands of dollars then you do need to consider that.. Its your money and your budget after all! A good agent should be able to provide some ball park numbers.