The HGTV effect on home inspections

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother has been a realtor for over 30 years. She has always used inspections for negotiating on big items. In general, anything that can cause over $5K worth of repairs needs to be taken into account either with a seller repair, seller credit or price negotiation. That is within reason. For example, something that is nearing the end of its life span. Roofs over 20 years old, major appliances over 10 years old or identified by the inspector as in need of repair. That type of thing. Small fixes, like outlets, basic plumbing, light fixtures, are usually either make the seller repair/replace or deal.

That's fine, but in our last sale I found that they were trying to come after us for things that would happen way down the line. Our roof was 15 years old on a 20 year roof. They wanted a credit for possibly needing to replace the roof 5 years down the road. Are you joking? The 20 year roof that was well maintained is actually not likely to need to be immediately replaced in 5 years and even if it were, you have 5 years to plan for it, but more likely 7-10. At which point I'll need to replace the roof on my new house too, so why would I be footing your prospective repair 10 years down the road?

This. Just because an inspector notes that a roof is nearing the end of its appraisal life value is a very different thing than saying that a roof is likely to need to be replaced in the next 2 years. An appraisal life is a meaningless accounting concept that has no bearing on what THIS roof's expected life is.

And frankly, even if an inspector says this roof is likely to need replacement in 5 years, I'm not sure why seller is expected to pay for this. Like the PP said, buyers have at least 5 years to prepare for that. As a homeowner of 25 years, I am always anticipating an average of $3000 in repairs per year. Sometimes it will be none, but some years will be a roof.

I'm the son of the realtor PP. I agree. If I had a house that had a 15 yo roof in good condition, I would decline the request after the inspection. Just because the buyer demands it based on the inspection does not require you to do it. You decline and they have the choice of continuing with the original contract or walking. I can't imagine buyers walking on a house because the roof is 15 years old and in good condition, especially not in this market. There are so few houses that people like and if they finally find one that they are willing to put in a bid on that is still available, I can't imagine them walking for that.

When I sold my first home, the buyer had an inspection and had a list of about 6-8 things that needed to be remedied. The largest one was an adjustment made to the roof by the original owner. They wanted it restored to the original design. It was that way when I bought the house. I had replaced the roof already and had discussed it with the roofer. I declined this modification specifying that I had had the roof replaced and had the modification reviewed by the roofer who said it was an acceptable modification for the structure. Additionally, I had the original hardware and told them that the original hardware was there and they were welcome to restore it to the original design if they wanted, but I would not. I fixed the smaller items myself. The buyer accepted the contract with the smaller items replaced by me and no price adjustment.

[Anonymous]

I don't blame HGTV. I blame skyrocketing housing costs. People are paying $800k for colonials that are $150 in the rest of the country. It's back breaking and it adds insult to injury to have crap to fix and replace on top of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a first time buyer ask us to fix everything on the inspection report (which only had minor things: wobbly railing, one outlet with reverse polarity, loose nail on gutter) AND wanted $10k in credit. Completely ridiculous. My agent rolled her eyes.

We had this same experience a month ago, on the sale of our condo. First time buyer using an inexperienced realtor. The inspection report turned up only very minor issues, and she expected all of them to be fixed, because she thought we were "required" to do so. Such a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a first time buyer ask us to fix everything on the inspection report (which only had minor things: wobbly railing, one outlet with reverse polarity, loose nail on gutter) AND wanted $10k in credit. Completely ridiculous. My agent rolled her eyes.

We had this same experience a month ago, on the sale of our condo. First time buyer using an inexperienced realtor. The inspection report turned up only very minor issues, and she expected all of them to be fixed, because she thought we were "required" to do so. Such a joke.

We just sold our 150-year old rowhouse in a hot neighborhood. Had an all-cash offer that was $20k less (on a $1.5m home) than an offer with a financing contingency. The financed buyers were a bit older, and lawyers. The cash buyers were like 22 and getting the money from their parents. My agent wanted us to go with the cash offer because she thought it was less risky, even though a little lower. The house was in very well improved condition, but it's 150 years old and there's always "stuff" that an inspector is going to flag. I thought the lawyers with the financing contingency were way less risky than a couple of 22-year olds who have never worked and are getting $1.5m from their parents. Those 22 year olds would have definitely made the inspection a living hell. The lawyers were, as expected, reasonable about the whole thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mother has been a realtor for over 30 years. She has always used inspections for negotiating on big items. In general, anything that can cause over $5K worth of repairs needs to be taken into account either with a seller repair, seller credit or price negotiation. That is within reason. For example, something that is nearing the end of its life span. Roofs over 20 years old, major appliances over 10 years old or identified by the inspector as in need of repair. That type of thing. Small fixes, like outlets, basic plumbing, light fixtures, are usually either make the seller repair/replace or deal.

Nope, this is unacceptable. Inspections are for items that are currently broken. Something "nearing the end of its life span" is the buyers' responsibility, and I'd tell them to go take a hike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't blame HGTV. I blame skyrocketing housing costs. People are paying $800k for colonials that are $150 in the rest of the country. It's back breaking and it adds insult to injury to have crap to fix and replace on top of it.

I am an agent and agree with this.

A further complication is that buyers do not understand houses. Until about 20 years ago, many people -- particularly men (flame away) -- had a good understanding of home maintenance. They would putter around their house and generally instruct their sons (flame away again) in how to care for a home. This changed as Americans became more affluent and stopped doing work on their own homes. As a result many buyers under 50 have no understanding of houses and panic over anything the home inspector points out. They don't understand that they are buying a used house that will need maintenance and repairs. Even if they buy a sparking new house, it will have its problems during a home inspection, and they will have to maintain and repair the home. Buyers are much more focused on where to place a big screen TV, their firepit, whether the god awful Restoration Hardware sectional will fit in the family room and finding the right shade of gray for walls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mother has been a realtor for over 30 years. She has always used inspections for negotiating on big items. In general, anything that can cause over $5K worth of repairs needs to be taken into account either with a seller repair, seller credit or price negotiation. That is within reason. For example, something that is nearing the end of its life span. Roofs over 20 years old, major appliances over 10 years old or identified by the inspector as in need of repair. That type of thing. Small fixes, like outlets, basic plumbing, light fixtures, are usually either make the seller repair/replace or deal.

How many houses has your mother lost for clients with this approach?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother has been a realtor for over 30 years. She has always used inspections for negotiating on big items. In general, anything that can cause over $5K worth of repairs needs to be taken into account either with a seller repair, seller credit or price negotiation. That is within reason. For example, something that is nearing the end of its life span. Roofs over 20 years old, major appliances over 10 years old or identified by the inspector as in need of repair. That type of thing. Small fixes, like outlets, basic plumbing, light fixtures, are usually either make the seller repair/replace or deal.

Nope, this is unacceptable. Inspections are for items that are currently broken. Something "nearing the end of its life span" is the buyers' responsibility, and I'd tell them to go take a hike.

No offense, but how many houses has your mother sold over 30 years? 3? 5?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother has been a realtor for over 30 years. She has always used inspections for negotiating on big items. In general, anything that can cause over $5K worth of repairs needs to be taken into account either with a seller repair, seller credit or price negotiation. That is within reason. For example, something that is nearing the end of its life span. Roofs over 20 years old, major appliances over 10 years old or identified by the inspector as in need of repair. That type of thing. Small fixes, like outlets, basic plumbing, light fixtures, are usually either make the seller repair/replace or deal.

Nope, this is unacceptable. Inspections are for items that are currently broken. Something "nearing the end of its life span" is the buyers' responsibility, and I'd tell them to go take a hike.

No offense, but how many houses has your mother sold over 30 years? 3? 5?

My mother has probably sold over 1000 houses. She averages about $3M in sales a year where the average houses list around $150-200K. That average is only for about the last 20 years. For the first 20 10+ years, she did between 2 houses the first year to about $1M in sales by around the 10th year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother has been a realtor for over 30 years. She has always used inspections for negotiating on big items. In general, anything that can cause over $5K worth of repairs needs to be taken into account either with a seller repair, seller credit or price negotiation. That is within reason. For example, something that is nearing the end of its life span. Roofs over 20 years old, major appliances over 10 years old or identified by the inspector as in need of repair. That type of thing. Small fixes, like outlets, basic plumbing, light fixtures, are usually either make the seller repair/replace or deal.

Nope, this is unacceptable. Inspections are for items that are currently broken. Something "nearing the end of its life span" is the buyers' responsibility, and I'd tell them to go take a hike.

No offense, but how many houses has your mother sold over 30 years? 3? 5?

My mother has probably sold over 1000 houses. She averages about $3M in sales a year where the average houses list around $150-200K. That average is only for about the last 20 years. For the first 20 10+ years, she did between 2 houses the first year to about $1M in sales by around the 10th year.

Your mother obviously doesn't sell real estate in the DMV. Here, these practices would not fly and might even violate applicable state laws and/or ethical constraints.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother has been a realtor for over 30 years. She has always used inspections for negotiating on big items. In general, anything that can cause over $5K worth of repairs needs to be taken into account either with a seller repair, seller credit or price negotiation. That is within reason. For example, something that is nearing the end of its life span. Roofs over 20 years old, major appliances over 10 years old or identified by the inspector as in need of repair. That type of thing. Small fixes, like outlets, basic plumbing, light fixtures, are usually either make the seller repair/replace or deal.

Nope, this is unacceptable. Inspections are for items that are currently broken. Something "nearing the end of its life span" is the buyers' responsibility, and I'd tell them to go take a hike.

No offense, but how many houses has your mother sold over 30 years? 3? 5?

My mother has probably sold over 1000 houses. She averages about $3M in sales a year where the average houses list around $150-200K. That average is only for about the last 20 years. For the first 20 10+ years, she did between 2 houses the first year to about $1M in sales by around the 10th year.

Your mother works in a low cost area where demand is not strong and sellers have to make more concessions to attract buyers. Additionally, buyers likely can't afford to make home repairs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother has been a realtor for over 30 years. She has always used inspections for negotiating on big items. In general, anything that can cause over $5K worth of repairs needs to be taken into account either with a seller repair, seller credit or price negotiation. That is within reason. For example, something that is nearing the end of its life span. Roofs over 20 years old, major appliances over 10 years old or identified by the inspector as in need of repair. That type of thing. Small fixes, like outlets, basic plumbing, light fixtures, are usually either make the seller repair/replace or deal.

Nope, this is unacceptable. Inspections are for items that are currently broken. Something "nearing the end of its life span" is the buyers' responsibility, and I'd tell them to go take a hike.

No offense, but how many houses has your mother sold over 30 years? 3? 5?

My mother has probably sold over 1000 houses. She averages about $3M in sales a year where the average houses list around $150-200K. That average is only for about the last 20 years. For the first 20 10+ years, she did between 2 houses the first year to about $1M in sales by around the 10th year.

Your mother obviously doesn't sell real estate in the DMV. Here, these practices would not fly and might even violate applicable state laws and/or ethical constraints.

Np here, but what are you talking about? That approach doesn't sound unreasinable, especially in a sane market, unlike here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't blame HGTV. I blame skyrocketing housing costs. People are paying $800k for colonials that are $150 in the rest of the country. It's back breaking and it adds insult to injury to have crap to fix and replace on top of it.

I am an agent and agree with this.

A further complication is that buyers do not understand houses. Until about 20 years ago, many people -- particularly men (flame away) -- had a good understanding of home maintenance. They would putter around their house and generally instruct their sons (flame away again) in how to care for a home. This changed as Americans became more affluent and stopped doing work on their own homes. As a result many buyers under 50 have no understanding of houses and panic over anything the home inspector points out. They don't understand that they are buying a used house that will need maintenance and repairs. Even if they buy a sparking new house, it will have its problems during a home inspection, and they will have to maintain and repair the home. Buyers are much more focused on where to place a big screen TV, their firepit, whether the god awful Restoration Hardware sectional will fit in the family room and finding the right shade of gray for walls.

Agree with this. DH is in construction and we always do a general inspection. We know that he can fix anything that is wrong with the house. Over the years, I've learned a lot about home maintance from watching him. Now he's teaching our children (boy and girl) to do home repairs.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why sellers don't have to note the age of the major appliances in the listing. It's always a big shock when I go through inspection and find out the roof is actually 30 years old. You don't get a credit for it though.

[Anonymous]

No one is obligated to buy a house if they don't like what's in the inspection report. It all comes down to how much the seller wants to sell to that particular buyer. In a seller's market they might have their pick of buyers so have no reason to negotiate if they don't want to. In a softer market the sellers would be wise to very carefully consider their options before walking away from an otherwise decent offer.