Help! Inspection negations

[L. Brown]

Hey BP, I need your advice. I am under contract for a duplex where there is a renter in one of the units and I would live in the other. The rent role is $1900. The inspection showed some issues, which the seller is willing to give a $5,000 credit. My GC says it will cost more like $7,000. I have some renovations I’d like to do on the house and really don’t want to put out the additional $2,000 out of pocket. So I was thinking about asking the seller the give me a $7,000 credit and I would give her the rent role ($1,900) in the first month after I own the home. This would essentially pay for the $2,000 more that I’m asking for.

What do you guys think? Am I missing anything? Can I sweeten the deal? Thanks!

[Mike McCarthy]

@L. Brown you can certainly ask for anything. As a seller, I wouldn’t make a deal like that because legally, it’s really hard to enforce payments after closing.

What day of the month will you be closing? If say on the 5th, usually the rent for the remainder of the month will be paid to you by the seller, pro-rated the 6th through the 31st. Maybe you can forego that transfer.

Or maybe

Also, depending on what was found during the inspection, as the seller, I might not agree with paying for all the items found during inspection.

Doesn’t mean you can’t go back and ask for more... but remember that negotiations are best when they work out for both parties.

Good luck!