Asking Seller to Pay for Repairs

[Ben E.]

My main question relates to asking seller to complete or pay for repairs.

I have a house under contract for $120k. It's a great location, most of the house is pretty nice (for the neighbor hood and price range). However, the inspection turned up 4 major issues.

1) electrical needs service upgrade + there is knob-and-tube wiring to the 2nd floor.

2) Chimney needs a flue + rebuild from the roof up.

3) Inspector estimated 2-3 year life on roof. It has cedar shingles underneath 3 layers of asphalt, so it will need a tear off replacement.

4) boiler is very old (1970s), but seems to work well

I suspect the first 3 items easily add up to $15k - 20k in near-term repairs. I already have to look around at other insurance companies as State Farm won't insure anything with active knob-and-tube.

I'm planning to use the property as a vacation rental as it has pretty good potential. That will also involve $3-5k in setup costs.

I'm paying cash and have funds to make the additional investment, but I think these big items were put off and it is reasonable to ask seller to pay part of repair costs. I can see that the seller paid $60k for the property in 2000. So they will still be doing well. Also, she is already living out of the area, but it is a tight market with low inventory of quality houses in this neighborhood.

I don't have experience with this type of negotiation, any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Ben