Buyer wants all siding replaced and roof!

[Tara G.]

We bought a SFH at the courthouse auction, put in very nice upgrades, fixed all the issues that our inspection identified, staged it, on the market in 5 weeks. Had 2 offers in the first week, accepted one with a 3-week due diligence period (don't ask, new Realtor Form doesn't have contingencies, only a walk for any or no reason for the buyer, with a due diligence fee). Got inspection report, many little items, some siding items. We said we would take care of everything. We'd had rotten siding replaced and painted the whole house, inside and out, including trim. Buyer gets a siding and roofing "inspector" to look at the home. Said "inspector" (read roofing and siding installer) said, need to replace entire siding and roofing, basically spooking the buyers. Buyers have about 1000$ besides EMD invested in the deal, in fees, inspections etc- all non-refundable. Second time home owners, seem to be good people. We want them to have a good home, but replace all siding and roof when there are no issues? Home is about 20 years old.

How would you deal with this? We'd lose about 3-4 weeks of on-market time if this tanks.

[J Scott]

First, a few mistakes that hopefully you can correct in the future so this doesn't happen again:

1. Keep due diligence periods SHORT. I insist that my buyer's due diligence period always ends by Thursday evening and doesn't encompass more than one full weekend. This ensures that my house isn't off-the-market for more than a single weekend for due diligence.

2. Once the buyer has a list of items he requests repairs for after an inspection, I have them sign a contract amendment that says, "Seller agrees to all requested repairs, Buyer agrees to terminate due diligence period." This forces the buyer to encapsulate all repairs into a single request, and then the due diligence period is over. This keeps the buyer from coming back multiple times asking for things.

3. Get larger EM deposits.

Now, as for the situation, how old is the roof. If it's more than 20 years old, it probably does need to be replaced. While it should have been made earlier, this isn't an unreasonable request.

Unless the siding is a wood or composite material, I imagine 20 years isn't long enough to require the house to be resided. If the siding still has integrity and there are no termite or rot issues, repair of any bad siding should be sufficient.

Have you tried negotiating with the buyer? Will he walk if you don't do these things? Are you prepared to let him walk? Can you afford to replace the roof?

Personally, I would do any repairs that I thought were reasonable (in this case, replace a roof if it's more than 20 years old) and refuse to do anything that I don't believe is reasonable.

If the buyer walks, so be it.