Contract is signed to sell our home and home inspection just completed.

However, from the inspection, the buyer is asking us to pay for two items:

1 - Installing electricity to the garage and wiring the garage for outlets, switches and garage door opener. This is a home built in 1920 with a detached garage. The only note on the inspection report is garage doesn't have electric.

2 - Installing attic fan and 'cutting in' soffits. We have a walk-in (with regular stairs), finished (lathe and plater) walls and ceiling attic. The ceiling is on the roof rafters and there is no insulation between the attic ceiling and the roof of the house. The house is in Central Ohio. Inspection report states that there is no ventilation in the attic and that it needs ventilation. The buyer has a quote to install mechanical ventilation and cut vents in the soffits.

My first question on the ventilation is; I thought the inspector was to just record the deficencies and not indicate what is needed to fix the issue. Second question is: If I believe the recommendation to be worse for the integrity of the house, how do i respond?

The total estimates for these are close to $5000!! I don't believe these two items are required repairs that affect the mechanical integrity or structural integrity of the property.

Can someone help me out with a response....or tell me why I may be to 'attached' to my house and can't believe these?

Things might be different in Ohio than in NC but here, none of these things would be required as part of the contract. Your agent will be in a better position to tell you how Ohio law applies here.

The home inspector will note everything, including items that are not up to today's codes but sellers are not required to bring houses up to modern day code.

Typically, buyers use these type of items to negotiate a better price. You can either tell them no or negotiate a price that satisfies both of you.

The electricity to the garage is outside of the scope of items required to be repaired as part of the inspection unless you stated in the listing that the garage was wired for electricity, but the attic could fall under the inspection items but you could always say no and let the deal go. You should also have had a cap on what you would spend on repair items in your contract and if that is the case have your realtor offer to give them that amount in lieu of fixing the items.

I asked my realtor about the cap on repair items in the contract. I remember when I bought the house, the seller put a cap (it was reasonable).

My realtor said that it's done after the home inspection! Now I may be stuck if the buyer backs down.

His request was to fix the items on the list, or pay $5000 of his points, closing costs and fees.

My response was, I will fix a, b and c and offer $1000 for points, closing costs and fees. I left off the list that I will not pay for d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k.....

95% of them, and the highest priced to fix, were maintenance items for the buyer to maintain upon having the house.

Just got a return call:
Buyer indicates that the issues that I am not accepting are safety hazards. I can assure you they are not. They are desires by the buyers.

They now want $3500 for closing and points to be paid by me.

My response is I will still fix a, b and c and offer $1500 for their fees. I've also stated to my realtor to verbally indicate there are others interested in the property (which there are) and that this is my last offer.

I've never heard of someone asking for that much. Is it because of the market?

A Building Inspection contingency was originally supposed to be a means for a naive Buyer to have another set of eyeballs take a look and make sure he isn't buying into a can of worms - to eliminate future surprises; but not to make the property perfect.

It has evolved into a means of commencing a new negotiating session where the starting point is the Contract price and we bargain DOWN from there.

CLOSING COSTS and POINTS have nothing to do with the Building Inspection.

Unless there were some major new discoveries made during the Building Inspection, comments made by the Building Inspector should not be used to try and weaken your bargaining position; but that is what many Buyers think they are now entitled to do. I would not have offered to make any concessions. Familiarity breeds contempt; and Buyers never ever like a house again as much as the 1st time they saw it.

"I've also stated to my realtor to verbally indicate there are others interested in the property (which there are) and that this is my last offer."

Ah yes but at what price are these other buyers interested in purchasing your homes??? Talk is cheap and unless you have another binding contract offer in writing you are willing to accept you have NOTHING!

What they are asking for is not that bad I have seen much worse in this market. You probably aren't as familiar with market conditions as your broker/agent because you haven't probably sold a home in years. So you are basing this experience from the last time you sold in a different market and time.

no legal advice- just giving you my opinion

You have already negotiated them down $1500 from their original demand. You can get more out of them. IMHO, they want the house and this is not a deal breaker.

We had an offer within 5 days of putting the sign up in mid April. After this offer, we had an open house on a rainy, cold day, and had two other families wanting to make offers. We already accepted the first offer, so didn't deal with the others (plus I don't think its ethical).

Super Realtor: While you do have a good point about the market and finding other buyers, I am not concerned about finding other buyers with this much interest in our house in this market

Like someone already stated, the inspection period is a time for a buyer to re-open the negotiating session if there are any repairs to be made. You can negotiate all you want with the buyers. Ultimately, as long as they're within their due diligence period, they can still back out. How long is their due diligence period? Maybe you could let it run out before responding back to them. This way they are tied to the contract.

That shows your house is priced right or that it is underpriced to begin with to get multiple offers.About 80 percent of a homes activity happens the first 1 to 2 weeks on the market.

So don't get cocky and think that multiple offers after offers will keep rolling in at weeks 3 and 4. Make sure if you fall out of contract with this one that the other offers are qualfied and have the terms you are looking for.

no legal advice

Thanks S.R.,

Actually I am taking your advice just to be done with it. It's hard to pay for something that is outside of the scope, but it may be more expensive to loose the sale.

keep this in mind if you ever sell a house again because you should always have a cap on what you will pay towards inspection repairs. As far as waiting for the inspection period to lapse so that they could lose their earnest deposit that would prove to be difficult also. When they are in default on the contract it is not automatic that you get to keep the earnest deposit. If both sides don't sign off on it then it becomes a legal battle and they can possibly tie up your house while you fight it out in court.

Thanks Bubba, I will remember that.

I brought this up with my realtor when we put got the first offer, and she said "No, it's not done until after inspection"

Problem with most homeowners is we don't sell our houses that often and have to rely on the realtor, or a lawyer.

For example, their earnest money was only $500!!!! I also asked if this was too low, and our realtor said no.

When we submitted an offer for our new house, I put $500 for earnest money, they asked for $2000!!!!

While I'm happy the house sold, our realtor was very poor overall.

Sounds like you had a new,or inexperienced agent, or they were more worried about a commission check than there fiduciary duty to you there seller.

Of course we just have your side of it here. The good thing is next time interview multiple brokers/agents and remember what you liked and didn't like about your last transaction and agent. In fact I would right it down and store it somewhere as a reminder for next time.

This was part of a relocation package and the company sent me two approved agents to interview from different realtors. I chose the one that had 25 years experience and specific experience in my immediate area. The other had 10-12 years, but was not familiar with the area.

In central OH, we don't put a cap on inspection costs in our contracts. It is different than other areas. The buyers have a certain number of days to have their inspections done and then the buyer & seller have a certain number of days to agree on what needs to be fixed. There is no place to put a limit and if I were representing the buyers, I would be leary of a seller that wanted to impose a limit.

Right now I am seeing buyers ask for more than ever in their "request to remedy" forms. It's just the market, they are doing it because they can.

Also, I don't know what price point your house was in, but $500 is normal for earnest money in central OH. Over a certain amount, you might ask for $1,000, but I've had buyers offer $100 earnest money and most of the time sellers take it.