What's your best post inspection negotation?

Question

Hey BP. Any good tales about successful post inspection negotiations? How much did you save? Did you get a deal? Heck, I'm even interested in post inspection fails, which I sure have my fair share of.

Evan Polaski · Answer

@Andrew Freed, in this market over the last few years, as a buyer I don't ask for inspections and as a seller I don't give much on them given the demand.

I guess an inspection fail would be about two years ago when my wife and I put our house on Zillow as a Make me Move.  We had a couple come in and offer full price, cash.  They did want an inspection.  Day of inspection comes, and the inspector shows up with his tools in a 5 gallon HD bucket.  Note: we had completed a full gut rehab of our house with all new plumbing, electrical, HVAC, second floor addition, etc.  Basically the house is new, short of the original foundation and the first floor brick exterior.

The inspection report came back with all sorts of BS things, like hot and cold lines on washing machine misconnected, need for dryer vent to be swept (less than 1 year old).  There were a couple legitimate items that we were happy to address.  We called BS on probably 80% of their list, but buyers felt that since they were offering full price and cash, we should give.

Needless to say, I am still in the house, and thankfully so, since based on recent comps, our house will sell for about $60k more than previous buyers were under contract, when we list in another month.

Andrew Freed · Answer

@Evan Polaski Great story, glad it worked out for you. Holding solid real estate for the long term is never a bad decision.