If a potential buyer asked for a new furnace, and I knew the furnace functioned just fine....I would tell the potential buyer to pound sand.

generally, items identified in an inspection that YOU AGREE are items....your responsibility to fix.

Essentially the deal is renegotiated once the inspection report is received. The inspector will find a list of items because that's his job. Especially true in an older house. Many will be minor. An experienced buyer will pass over the minor ones but a first time buyer may not realize what's minor or major. The buyer can ask you to fix anything that comes up in the inspection. You can say yes or no or offer a compromise. You can fix items or reduce the sale price or give the buyer cash back at close of escrow. Since the buyer has an inspection contingency in their offer they can back out if they don't like the revised deal. It can put the seller in an awkward position. Some buyers will use the inspection report as a way to get a slightly better deal. If you are lucky your buyers will view the report as information about the house. To be honest this is where it really helps to have a savvy realtor who is competitive and likes to win.

You already have a low priced house. Assuming the heater is working my first response back to the buyer would be that the age of the heater was already priced into the asking price. If the seller doesn't accept that I'd switch to negotiating cash back (probably starting with $500 given the low price of the house).

It's not worth losing the sale and putting the house back up in the MLS over $500 or $1000 or $2,000. Experienced buyers know that and some will try to find your breaking point.

As Stan Z said, the home inspection will find things. If you feel the age of the furnace might be a problem throw in a renewable home warranty, for a small house the warranty will be very reasonable (like a couple of hundred at most).

Negotiate repairs smartly but do negotiate.

I just spent 20k+ on renovations and repairs and the buyers inspection came up with a bunch of small items. However, they don't want us to fix them they want the cash instead and gave us an estimate for 4k. Things like $125 to nail piece of trim, $65 for a piece of duct tape to fix small tear on HVAC flexible return, $285 to clean small (half dollar sized) stain on the ceiling, and then estimates for things that were NOT even on the inspection report. They got the estimate from a company that provides quotes based on the one photo and one line description in the inspection report.

In other words buyers can and may very well ask for anything they want.

Some buyers are a little crazy. Stan Z has good advice. If you want to keep the deal alive, renegotiate.

I was selling a home once and it was one thing after another. Then I thought it was done and another demand came in: a soap dish in the master shower. I called our realtor and said "get this house back on the market or else close it this week.

It closed. Then Lehman went bankrupt and the market crashed. My advice, get it sold and don't mess around with little stuff.

I encourage my sellers to have the home inspected prior to putting it on the market. That way, you are in control of the costs, the workmanship, the timing, and the decisions. If not you are giving up a lot of this leverage to the buyer. Doing this really makes this part of the transaction much less stressful and costly.

Bry911... home warranty's have risen in cost over the last few years. Even the most basic ones are now about $400.

There are some pretty unreasonable buyers out there today. I live in a neighborhood where most of the houses were built in 1948. It is a highly desireable neighborhood and all the houses are very well maintained. But new young buyers come in and want all the house totally rewired and all new plumbing, i.e., they want a brand new house inside with one with charm and age on the outside, in an established neighborhood. Sellers find this VERY frustrating.

In some communities, houses must be brought up to code before they can be sold. So an inspection is not a list of "suggestions", it is a list of requirements which must be made by either the buyer or the seller. I had my house in a St Louis suburb inspected by the city before putting it on the market. We made all the necessary repairs that brought it up to code. A contract was made with a buyer and signed by both. The buyer then had her realtor order a NEW city inspection of the property and did not tell my realtor or me (we were away for the summer while the property was being shown). With much coaching from the buyer's realtor, this inspector found about $10,000 worth of repairs on a house that sold for $89,500 in 1981. We were in no position to make these unnessary repairs and our house had passed the previous inspection. But now it was on the city's records that these repairs must be made. My realtor reported the buyer's realtor to the Board of Realtors and the realtor ended up having to pay for the repairs as neither we, nor the buyer were about to do so.

Inspections can get very sticky.

ncrealestateguy - we had an inspection done, spent 20k on renovations and repairs and the buyers inspector still came up with a long list of nit-picky stuff - missing hinge screw, squeaky floor in hall, and of cause the usual "this may be an issue but I don't know, so have it checked out". Out of the 4k of repairs the buyer wants money for what I consider 3 legitimate items. We are having two repaired and offering them a credit for the remaining item. These 3 things our inspector missed. And the total for these three items $25 for the two items we are fixing and $90 for the third item we will give them a credit for.

I thought the point of an inspection was to uncover big ticket items, like a roof, HVAC, foundation issue. All the things on the buyer's list are small DIY home owner items and if the inspector had not pointed them out the buyers would never have been any the wiser and would probably never even notice.

I think it's pretty ballsy to get a quote from some company that has never even visited the house and based the quote on pics and description in the inspection report and then present an estimate with over inflated prices and ask for that amount of money.

I'm told that buyers will ask for everything in the hopes of getting something. I guess I'm bad at buying homes because I only asked for one major structural issue to be fixed and plan to just fix the small stuff ourselves.

Thanks for the advice all!!

Ncrealestateguy-in the future, if we would go and get a home inspection done on a house we are selling..do buyers typically still get their own one done as well? Or, is that something you can say you already completed and in return your house is more marketable? Or no difference really?

Re sellers inspection report. I get an inspection to prevent any surprises. I provide the inspection report to the buyer.

As you have learned, a real estate contract has many contingencies, one of those contingencies is the inspectors report. To me, it did make a difference, I did not know about some water damage, this was disclosed to the buyer and his offer and my counter offer included the water damage.

I am not sure how knowledgeable someone purchasing a 86k home is, their realtor would be their adviser. After the finanancing contingency confusion, have you changed agents?

The inspection report(s) are to determine the current physical condition of the property subject to certain limitations contained in the inspectors contract. It is not limited to big ticket items at all. However, most of the inspection contracts I have read limit the inspections to visible areas and the inspector(s) will not move sellers personal items. The inspectors are on the spot too if they fail to list the minor items in their reports. Some inspectors have decent reports where the minor items are notated as such. Other reports are not as well organized. We have additional inspection reports (over and above the traditional whole house inspection and WDO report) that are required by the insurance companies. Those reports are the ones that typically take all the attention - wind mitigation reports and 4-point inspection reports for properties over 30 years old.

I agree with you Jane Smith about the company that looks at a photo and determines a repair quote by looking at a photo. That is a poor substitution for getting an actual repair quote for any given item.

Most of our contracts are AS IS here in S Fl so the repair items get grouped into a re-negotiated contract price unless the item needs to be completed prior to closing. An example would be roof replacement or termite tenting. Small repairs don't even make it to the discussion stage as the buyer knows that the list of small items to be repaired is at their expense after closing (think "Honey Do" list).

For small items - it is customary for the seller to say NO here. Your agent can give you guidance. Some buyers do try to get more and more and more done at seller's expense and you have to draw your line early. Better said as : say "NO early and often" with these types of buyers. Any sign of weakness and they will run over you.

When we sold our house in April, the buyers asked for $650 for a new dishwasher (since ours had been recalled due to risk of house fires) and $500 for roof repair. We said fine to the roof repair, but for the dishwasher, we had a repair person out who certified the repair had been done.

We thought the roof repair request was reasonable (the inspector said it looked like a tree branch had fallen on the roof, which seemed likely). The dishwasher request was silly--so we got proof the recall repair was done.

They later (after the deadline) asked for radon mitigation, but we balked at the request post-deadline. We claimed (accurately) that we made the house totally available for their inspections as they requested them and didn't think we should be responsible for requests that came in late. I don't know if the buyers are going to pay for the radon mitigation or if their real estate agent did (because he screwed up and didn't track downthe radon results in time to include them in the post-inspection report) (If it had come down to the deal falling apart, we'd have compromised--but it turned out we didn't have to)

So, people ask for all sorts of things--from reasonable (roof damage) to silly (new dishwasher)

All of it is negotiable.

I had someone ask for a lint trap to be cleaned out. Fine.

At some point it's stupid.

As a seller one thing we've done upon receiving the inspection report from a buyer who seems to be polite and rational is gone around and taken care of the "honey-dos" that take a few minutes using tools and materials we already have around the house.

Home sales are tense for buyer and seller. There's definitely something to be said for making a goodwill gesture so that the buyer moves into the house happy and content. Realtors and buyers are surprised when we do this gesture. As a seller I don't want an angry buyer lawyering up over a frivolous item in part because of a rough sale. One nice thing about multiple offers is you might be able to filter out the crazy and irrational. When we sold our house a few years ago we had 3 offers: one from two married attorneys (no thanks); one from a superstitious lady who asked us 3 times whether someone had died in the house (no thanks); and one from a very respectable, qualified buyer. We would have gone with the 3rd buyer even if they had offered 1-2% less than the other two.

Great idea Stan Z.

We lucked out with our buyer. She asked lots of questions before the fact and took her time but finally met our price.

The inspector found 4 relatively minor things and 1 thing we let him and the buyer know about before the inspection began. (Our 6 year old, hardly ever used vent hood went on the fritz 3 days before the inspection, so we told the buyer and inspector and promised to get it fixed and we did a day later.) We fixed the other 4 things and our buyer is very happy. Enough so that when she had a cocktail party a few months later, we got an invite. :)

Of course we were also confident about everything being up to snuff.

As a buyer, I know I would still get my own house inspection even if the seller had gotten one. I don't know if seller's inspector is a friend of the seller, their competence level, if he was paid to have him "overlook" something, the quality of any repairs claimed to have been done for reported issues that were listed or a host of other problems.

I've prepared a 'welcome to your new home" file for the people who bought my home that contains all the manuals for the appliances, the extra mailbox keys, and the HOA CC&R/Bylaws, the light bulb extension and pole for the fixture on the stairs, skylight crank-pole (to open it with or close it), the extra cabinet hardware (pulls, knobs), the extra frameless shower door track rollers, the extra furnace/ac filters and some other small items that I've needed in the years I've lived here - what am I going to do with those things when we move, after all.

Appraised already, next week is inspection, then we just wrap things up with keys handed over at the start of August. Our new home has been inspected and is getting a radon mitigation system and a couple minor fixes - no water issues past or present in the basement which I've been told is a good sign. :P

I have a home listed for sale and several months ago a Buyer made an offer which was accepted. The home inspection turned up about a dozen items that the inspector recommended be repaired/replaced. This deal ended up falling apart but my Seller repaired/replaced every single item that came up on the inspection.

We then received another offer which was accepted and again Buyers had inspections. The second inspection turned up about 15 items that were not included or even mentioned on the first inspection report.

Jennifer D that is so nice :) Our seller left us a similar file with landscape info and manuals and whatnot and it has been so helpful

. Our inspector was very good and while he pointed out minor things he did not make them into issues. Minor was things like extra long dryer vent hose kinked and allowing too much moisture into laundry room. We didn't ask for any repairs as nothing was major.

The new soon-to-be-owners will need these things more than I will, and they will also have the extra box of LVP and all three lengths in extra vertical blinds- front kitchen, top windows above slider, and slider. In my experience you will need those at some point - maybe not all of them but it's good to have a few just in case.

Our realtor had the kitchen faucet replaced and the popup drain assembly in the bathroom replaced before we went live on the MLS. The flooring and carpet was replaced in 2016 and a very nice installer went out of his way to replace one of the lines on the back of the toilet that had kinked so that there wouldn't be any leak when he turned the water back on. He came to put in the floors, fixed the toilet hose thingy while he was at it. I will miss my flooring company and their employees, not cheap but they go above and beyond.

My buyer asked that all windows on the semi-enclosed front porch be replaced with safety glass per their inspectors report noting them as an immediate safety hazard.

I said No. They already were safety glass, installed 5 years previous.

("two married attorneys" made my morning:)

I'm a non-fussy buyer myself and a considerate seller. I like to deal with people who're also considerate and non-fussy. Ask for reasonable things; and you'll get it all done, plus something you didn't ask for. I'll go out of my way to leave a well maintained, fresh painted, squeaky clean-to the best of my abilities- house, plus a file of info that might be needed, plus a sources for materials, plus that special mirror that just makes the living room...:)

but don't make a hole in my brain with whining..this seems that..that seems this..no, I don't need your cash..I don't need you in my life, and you can take your cash with you.

I like to deal with nice and reasonable people. When possible, of course.

Unreasonable, I can see them in other settings..:)

Two lawyers in this house. Keep in mind that some lawyers are a PITA for everyone while some are problem solvers and very pragmatic. I could ask a few questions and figure out which they were, but I understand the reason for pause. The buyer's agent also makes a difference. I know there are a couple of agents who could present an above asking price, all cash/no contingency contract and I wouldn't want to deal with them. Some people are like that.

If you do a pre-listing inspection, the contracts here require you to include it as part of your property condition disclosures along with the inspection from your purchase if it was within a certain number of years. If you have addressed all the major issues, that may work in your favor with prospective buyers. Another way to approach it is to go back to the inspecction report from when you bought the home and make sure you have addressed anything significant on that report as well as anything you know needs repair since then. That is what we did when we sold our last house.

"If, they can't find anything I've seen them make something up."

When we sold our previous house, as two engineers in the house, we had everything checked, repaired, verified, the house was in meticulous condition.

The inspection report turned out only one item, "...carpet is of the age of the house, it may need to replace soon". The house was 17 years old, and we replaced the carpet of the entire house with high quality brand new carpet only 2 months prior to the inspection.

We showed the buyers the receipt of carpet replacement, the house closed quickly with no issue at all.

Some buyers and sellers both seem to forget that it isn't the seller's job to deliver a house in as-new condition. The condition is reflected in the price, age of home, and comparable value on the market. When I bought my house the inspector went around with one of those receptacle testers and noted three receptacles with reversed hot and neutral wires. My realtor was like, "You want them to fix that don't you?" I told her I wouldn't insult the seller with that; it had probably been that way since before the seller moved in. I fixed it when I moved in.

Also, as evidenced by the above, a lot of inspectors place emphasis on trivial stuff because it's easy to inspect. A door is wobbly, an outlet needs to be screwed in tighter. Who cares. Tell me about stuff I may have missed because it's hard to spot, such as a bad floor joist or a leak into the attic that hasn't yet made itself visible as a spot on the ceiling somewhere. But I've seen many inspectors only point a flashlight into the crawl space and attic, while they make a big fuss over stuff that's essentially nonsense elsewhere so they can appear to be thorough.