Negotiating Repairs Before You Buy The Home Of Your Dreams

In this week’s Real Estate Roundup, Steve and Terry Story, a 31-year veteran at Keller Williams, looked closely at what types of repairs homes often need when they go up for sale. It’s important for you, as a home buyer, to understand what is reasonable to ask the seller to fix and which repairs might be easier and less expensive to fix on your own.

Under $500?  Just Fix It Yourself

Terry’s rule of thumb on needed repairs when you’re buying a home—and there are always a few things that need to be fixed—is anything less than $500 to $1,000, just handle it yourself. It’s just easier all around that way. You should look at that cost in relation to the total purchase price of the house. The seller’s not going to want to renegotiate over a couple of hundred dollars. Terry tells home buyers to look for big-ticket items, things like needed roof repairs or the heating/cooling system not working right. Those are the issues you really need to work out with the seller before closing the deal.

When buying a home, you’re often agreeing to buy “as is, with the right to inspect”. You negotiate in good faith that nothing major is wrong. If a home inspector does a walkthrough and you’re not happy with the results, you can still pull out of the deal. You also have the right to renegotiate, and that’s the best way to handle significant repair issues.

Negotiating For Home Repairs

The easiest way to handle repair issues is to negotiate a credit toward the purchase price with the seller. For example, if there’s a total of around $1,500 worth of repairs needed, you might ask the seller to knock $1,000 off the price. You can easily negotiate down a bit from whatever number the home inspector gives because those numbers are usually highly inflated. They might peg a toilet repair at $250 that you can do yourself with a $25 part from Home Depot.

Negotiating a credit is probably a smarter way to go than having the seller agree to handle the repairs. Why?  Well, what can happen is that the seller pays for the repairs, but then when you do a new walkthrough, you might not be satisfied with the work that’s been done, but the seller doesn’t feel as though they should have to spend more money after having paid someone once for the work. The smart way is to get a credit from the seller and then handle getting the repair work done yourself, assured that things are fixed to your satisfaction.

Don’t Be Afraid To Point Out The Need fFr Repairs

When you’re negotiating the price of a home, sellers assume you’re seeing things that obviously need to be repaired, such as cracks in the ceiling or the floor or plumbing issues. There may be some repairs that the seller isn’t aware of, however. Sometimes issues with air conditioning and heating or even a leaky roof might not be apparent. Make sure you bring all repair issues to the seller’s attention early on, not at the last minute just before closing.

You aren’t always going to be able to notice needed repairs yourself, so make sure to bring a home inspector with you when doing a walkthrough. And if there are specific and major issues, such as electrical wiring, then go the extra mile and bring in an electrician to assess the situation. It’s worth spending the money on a professional upfront, rather than finding out after you’ve bought the home that there are significant repairs needed. It’s too late then to renegotiate with the seller.

If you’d like to learn more about buying or selling a home, see Terry at Keller Williams!