The house we sold 6 years ago we did the house leveling before close and agreed on a dollar amount for the electrical work. They had a family member that was an electrician and would do the work for a reduced price. Everything else we said no, it was a long list of cosmetic stuff. The house was built in 1957.

Not here ... the Home Inspection is not used to discount the agreed upon price, it's to check for health & safety issues. I sold my house, closed in May, the only thing I did was upgrade some electrical for my buyers. Their agent said there were some other minor things on the Inspection, but they were going to take care of them themselves. So I don't even have any idea what they were, nor did I want to know.

I had four real estate transactions last year. Below is how they went down in terms of inspections and repairs. As you can see I've had no experience with someone expecting a laundry list of stuff to be done following an inspection. The house we bought that needed the water heater needed a fair amount of maintenance/repair work but we agreed on a price that reflected the additional investment we'd have to make - didn't expect the seller to do it.

• First one buyer didn't have an inspection other than what he did himself. No requests for anything to be done.
• We bought a place after that and asked that the leaking water heater that was noted during inspection be replaced and that a rotten exterior door be replaced. Both items were done. The door wasn't even noted on the inspection but we asked about it prior to making an offer on the place and were verbally told it would be replaced when an offer was forthcoming. We didn't document it in the offer but did with the post inspection requests.
• Bought another place and just asked that the attic steps in the garage be made operational - done - I think they just needed some lubrication.
• Sold another place after that and the buyer requested nothing after the inspection.

When we sold last year the buyers asked that a gfi be fixed and the sliding door be adjusted. Easy enough. I did have the mfgr come out for the door, but the gfi I replaced myself.

As a realtor, in most of my transactions, safety items or broken things usually get fixed. Ie, gfcis, electrical outlets not grounded, etc. Or water htr t&p valve, leaks in plumbing. Cosmetic items not usually.

We negotiated $3300 back. Dishwasher did not work, fridge water line was actually leaking under wood floor during inspection, locks broken, seller tried to cover up that she smoked in powder room (but not very well), and a few more.

When we sold our previous house buyer asked for no repairs.

Thanks! We had one item on the inspection the buyers wanted done and I flat out refused - my realtor tried to talk me into it and I said no. Took it back to the buyers and they took it off the list. I've just never heard of anyone getting every single thing they wanted, other than safety type stuff.

Agree that most sellers don't fix everything. Mainly safety concerns and nothing cosmetic. If a DW doesn't work, that can be negotiated, etc. But inspectors will require rot, termite damage, mold, GFI's and electrical hazzards. Here where we are, they may require septic inspections.

Our home was inspected yesterday. Let you know when we get the report. Only feedback we got was that there was no gfci protecting the whirlpool tub - which was not true. There is a gfci switch behind one of the doors.

We have sold many houses and bought many houses. We REFUSE to play the "lets renegotiate the price of the house after the inspection" game. We will not repair or place anything cosmetic. We will not repair or replace anything that is obvious during the negotiation phase. In the above situation - if we represented a functioning dishwasher, we would ensure a functioning dishwasher at close - but would much rather give buyers a few hundred bucks so they can upgrade to a better one than we would get if they want to. We will only consider foundation, system, or safety repairs.

that said - in our most recent purchase, the basement had been recently refinished, but the contractor did not vent the bathroom correctly (tied it into the laundry vent which ended up with the moisture from the laundry vent dripping into the downstairs shower -- ewww) We asked that the sellers contact the contractor and get that straightened out because they had the relationship with the contractor and it was still under a 1 year warrantee.

Our buyer wanted us to fix the holes from the tv mount in the living room. We refused as that's cosmetic.

We did fix the window that didn't close properly as that was part of the condo's responsibility.

We also fixed the range hood that broke the week before the inspection. In fact we let her know.

We did 3 other minor things that were requested and took less than 10 minutes.

Most real estate companies in my area tend to push the sellers to buy a home warranty that will pass to the buyer. That takes care a lot of things that might show up in an inspection. They market it as "peace of mind".

@jrb451, we've bought and sold many homes here in Montana and Southern California and not once has any realtor pushed a home warranty on us. Where are you that they do that?

In Texas they are big on the home warranty thing.

We asked for some wood and roof tile repair on a corner of the garage and a partial credit for replacement of the tankless water heater back to a tank. The venting for the tankless was not to code (too small), and since it went up through the roof of the second story, it was less expensive to convert back--which we wanted and preferred anyway.

The sellers offered a home warranty, but we told them to save their $500. We would never have made a claim through the warranty anyway--we want to choose who we do business with, not the unknown quality the warranty company would send.

When I bought my first home back in october, I asked the sellers to fix everything listed on the home inspection report. It was all very small stuff (toilets need to be tightened,caulk around tub,a few pieces of siding were coming off,etc) except for the outdoor electrical box. It was missing the false cover, and the wires were exposed. They AGREED to fix everything, and paid a contractor to do,the work. I was dumb enough to close with the knowledge that someone had been hired to do the work. The sellers were in a hurry to close so that they wouldn't owe that months mortgage. Now, 6 months + later,no cover on the electrical box. Every time I have called the contractor, he informs me that no,he talked to his electrician and that's been done already. I finally gave up, and hired my brother in law,who is also a contractor,to come and not only put the cover on the box, but fix the siding that is coming off AGAIN, as well as the all the other stuff that was not done correctly. Rookie mistake on my part. I informed the sellers that they should get their money back,at least for the stuff that wasn't done. Whether they did or whether they were in cahoots with the guy (who has done TONS of work on that house to hear him tell it),is unknown to me. I figured it didn't hurt to ask them to fix everything, the worst they can do is say no. I kinda wish they had. If it wasn't for the fact that the guy had been paid to do the work, and I was stubborn enough to think he would actually follow through if I nagged enough, I would have hired BIL months ago.

amylou, everything you mentioned, except the electrical box, I would have told you to fix it yourself. That is the type of stuff inspectors say to let you feel you got your money's worth.

I've been through this on both sides of the transaction many times. One that comes to mind was active termites in a porch support column. We required the seller to remove all of the damaged areas, leave the cladding open so we could inspect the replacement materials and workmanship, treat the areas and replace the clad areas before closing. They did, we inspected, it was completed to our satisfaction. We had additional termite treatment done later.

Usually, it's a nick picking little item. As a buyer, I would rather do most repairs myself in order to assure they are done correctly. As a seller, I will do some simple items such as a GFI or correct a safety item. I'll cooperate to a point, but if it goes beyond ridiculous I won't do it.

I purchased a 1850's historic home once that had been owned by the same individual for 50 years to the day he sold it. I didn't bother to do an inspection. I assumed everything was wrong with it and sure enough, it was. There wasn't any purpose served by inspecting, I already knew it wasn't up to code, the roof leaked and none of the appliances including the furnace were working properly. It needed a complete renovation and we priced it accordingly.

amylou321 Did you have an agent representing you? Was the repair agreement added to the contract? Sounds like a failure across the whole process.

A lot of this varies even from one house to the next within the same city. Some sellers clamp down and say the house goes as-is. Other, more motivated, sellers will fix everything just to make the deal go faster.

We didn't. It was clear in the listing that the house was as-is, barring an inspection coming back with a threat to life or property. We fixed all the minor stuff, so it was in good repair.

One potential buyer wanted us to replace the tile with bamboo engineered flooring because ... they wanted it. Another wanted the wood countertops replaced with granite.

We said no. The actual buyers had only a couple of clauses in the offer: they wanted to make sure the bookshelves stayed, and the remaining flagstone slabs left over from pathe and patio.

I find buyers who attempt to renegotiate price after an inspection ridiculous. If it isn't an unknown, previously undetected SAFETY issue, I'm not fixing it. I do all the work I am going to do before I list it. Otherwise, you are on your own, and my price has accommodated any deficiencies.

Some attempt to throw dozens or hundreds of requests at the Seller, often that are entirely upgrades, not deficiencies, in an attempt to either get improvements or get a lower price. That only creates more intractability in Sellers like me. I will sell to someone else just because he didn't ask for anything unreasonable. You get what you see, not a brand new house.

I had a buyer ask for a brand new screen door to be obtained and installed last time since the brand new, brand name, high end sliding doors didn't happen to come with one. Yeah, right. Go away. You saw that it had no screen door when you looked at the house. One isn't going to magically appear afterward. When they do that, I simply say no.

Lazy-gardens. That made me laugh. They wanted you to install new bamboo floors just because they wanted them? Another wanted granite? Well good for them. There is a new project after they buy.

People are so stupid sometimes.

Among other things doing upgrades for people creates the risk that the closing never happens and you get stuck with a new .... whatever.

How would some of this stuff even appear in an inspection report? I can't imagine an inspector writing notes about the cosmetic appeal of the countertops.

Hope, to answer your questions, yes and yes. My realtor has advised me that I can take legal action against the sellers but who wants to go though all that for such small things(minus the electrical). I chalk it up to a learning experience. The sellers seemed like nice people,and to be fair they paid the man to do the work.

cpartist

That would have suited me. If i were the seller, i would probably do the same. I just figured it doesn't hurt to ask. As it turns out, I will be fixing it all myself anyway,including the electrical box. But I look at it as now I know the person that is doing the work is trustworthy and will do it correctly the first time, as opposed to the man they hired, who can't be bothered to finish the job for which he gladly cashed the check for.

It may be on the inspection report only tangentially. "Worn area noted in formica near stove" = in Buyer in Fantasyland: "We NEED new countertops."

It may not be mentioned at all, but they throw it in anyway.

What absurdity.

We had a home inspector we used to use in NY who noted everything including the countertops being worn. However we didn't take that to mean we should be asking the sellers for new countertops. We took it to mean that we might want to redo the countertops once we're in the house.

I see nothing wrong with an inspector mentioning things like that as long as the buyer realizes that cosmetic stuff is not stuff that is negotiable.

I suppose it also depends on the overall condition of the house and the thoroughness of the inspector. If an inspector is poking around to find something interesting to say, cosmetic stuff would become a bigger issue.