My question involves a couple who had placed an offer on a home that they wished to buy. The offer was accepted by the seller and the couple were given a 10 day inspection period. During the inspection, the buyers issued several complaints ( ranging from wanting the house painted inside and outside, new carpets, repair of scratches made by the sellers cat, etc. ). The buyers are requesting a reduction in the price of the home ( by 15,000.00 ). Is this in your opinion a common practice that is done by buyers in order to lower the price of the home that they are buying? Is it something that usually works ( do the sellers generally meet them half way on the cost of repairs? ). Thanks for any advice or opinions that you might have.........

Sincerely,

Ted

If the feedback from the shownings consistantly remarked that the home needs to be painted, or the carpets need to be replaced, etc than the seller has two choices: 1) Negotiate with buyers or 2) take home off the market and get those items taken care of. (I would recommend this action)

Generally, inspections are meant to bring to light items that do not show up by simply walking through the home one or two times. If an inspection were done and the items you described in your post came up, I would recommend to the seller not to negotiate the price for those reasons. Those items were noticable before the inspection was done. It would appear that the like the home well enough to pay for an inspection and may be attempting to get a better deal.

The buyers were fully aware of the condition of the paint and carpeting and the pet damage when they viewed the house. They don't need a professional home inspector to see that! Also, those items could be remedied for a lot less than the amount they are specifying. This sounds *highly* questionable to me. The time to negotiate the price is when the offer is presented, not after the home inspection. When a major defect that is NOT obvious is found by the inspector (like structural damage, major roof defects, etc.) is it more generally expected and accepted that a buyer might try to get some money credited to them at closing for repairs. But even that practice is looked down upon in some markets.

To ask for that much money off for decor issues is just absurd, in my opinion. The buyers are either very ignorant about the process and their agent isn't clarifying things for them, or they are just downright being manipulative or are looking for a reason to say "this is unacceptable" so they can get out of contract. This just doesn't make sense.

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Lynn Bernardi
GrossePointe-Realty.com
Search the Southeastern Michigan MLS, or get a quality referral to an agent in your area.

If it takes an inspector to point things out to a potential buyer........what is the buyer's agent doing during this time? Only takes 30 seconds with a calculator to figure out commisions so I am wondering if the Realtor actually looked at the home and discussed this with them. If the buyers agent is the original poster of this thread, I am sorry if I am hammering you, but a big part....the part that adds some weight to justifying the compensation that Realtors hold so dear is spending the time and being detailed enough to notice defects that an emotional homeowner that loves the house cannot see.

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