How much money do I lose if I make an offer but pull out after inspection?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You lose your earnest money deposit. The inspection can only be used as a reason IF the inspection reveals major issues that the owner is unwilling to either pay to repair or mitigate themselves. You cannot back out just because you suddenly think its going to be too much work. shoulda thought about that before you put the contract on the house and wrote the check for the deposit.

This is incorrect information. The inspection doesn't have to reveal "major" issues. Basically, it all depends on how your contract is written. You can have the inspection contingency written so that you can back out if the inspection is unacceptable to you (without having to ask for repairs) and still get your deposit back in its entirety. Or it can be written so that you must submit a list of requested repairs after the inspection, and if the seller refuses to do them, then you can walk and get your deposit back. The repairs don't even have to be big ones. You can request a long list of minor repairs.

You can also request things like a roof certification, et cetera.

The important part is how the inspection contingency is written into the contract. Instead of just relying on your real estate agent, you might want to consult a real estate attorney.

[Anonymous]

You could also do a pre-offer inspection, which would save you the time haggling over the price if you see it is just too much to take on. We have done this before and ended up not bidding.

[Anonymous]

Agree with 22:19 if you can manage to fit in a pre-offer inspection. if you can't manage that, if you have a handy friend or a very nit-picky friend who've owned a couple of houses, you could maybe bring them along with you for a second look. My issue was that I should have realized during the first look at a house that the basement would be an issue. But I loved the above-ground floors, and I'm from the midwest, where a lot of basements are creepy because people in the tornado belt are more likely to have dark, non-walkout basements.

[Anonymous]

Read the contract.

[Anonymous]

You gotta remember not only u will lose that money, you will actually lose way more money because you will start looking again, which mean the house value is already increased, that might be $10k or more.