HELP! - Seller not willing to complete repairs

[Trey Gartner]

Hi All,

Long time lurker here on the forums and with the help from all you folks, I finally made my first step in real-estate investing and got my first house under contract!

My question is regarding the second round of negotiating I am currently undergoing.  I received back my inspection report and it detailed out several electrical and plumbing issues that were serious enough to warrant repair prior to closing.  Among other things, the biggest problems seem to dial down to shoddy workmanship on the electrical components and several exposed galvanized steel pipes that looked to be at the end of their life-cycle.  This is just what can be seen from a non-intrusive inspection, so I am sure this is just a small portion of what is going on behind the walls.  This is an old house (100 years old), so I expected there to be issues, but I'm wondering how much should I expect the Seller to offer up repairs to these components.  In our initial attorney review letter back to the seller, we asked that the seller make necessary repairs as detailed out in the inspection report.  Their response was simply that the house was to be sold "as-is" and no repairs will be made by the seller.

So my question is... where do I go from here?  Is it reasonable to counter with a proposed credit to the selling price so that I can perform the repairs myself?  Here in Chicago, plumbing jobs alone on a house this size can easily reach $15k+.  If they are unwilling to perform any repairs, is this enough to walk away from the deal?  Any and all ideas are welcome!

[JD Martin]

It really depends on what your sales number is. This is where it's helpful having construction experience/information, such that you would already know that the house likely had galvanized plumbing, knob and tube wiring, etc, and all of that is already contained within your offer. As for the seller doing repairs, I don't want sellers making any repairs because I know the repairs are likely to be the quickest, cheapest method available, which may or may not correlate to the repair being done correctly. 

Concessions from sellers are easier in a buyers market, if you are doing all cash, or if you are imminently close to closing. The seller has to feel some sense of urgency in order to make concessions. If you've already beat the seller down on the sale price, and they're already at their own bottom line, it's likely you'll get nowhere on requests.