Time to be more strict with concessions after inspection?

[Bevin Bankston]

Good afternoon BiggerPockets,

I just had an offer accepted on a home in Rhode Island. In the past I haven't done much in the way of negotiations after the inspection. I feel as though the more the market is changing the more a seller will not want to go back the the drawing board with offers. Is now a good time to start asking for more in concessions? 

For context: This is a 4 family with 4 newish heating systems and an architectural roof. The seller selected "Unknown" for everything in the sellers disclosure and the inspection will be tomorrow. I know there are some issue with the foundation. 

[Anthony Thompson]

@Bevin Bankston yes, you're in a better position now to ask for concessions after inspection, compared to a year ago.

But as always, you need to weigh the pros and cons of the deal when considering what to ask for. If you're getting a great deal, you might go easy on your asks. But if you feel you're paying at or above market value, you might go tougher.

By choosing "unknown" on everything in the disclosures, the seller can't say "I told you about that issue/defect in the disclosures so you can't raise it after inspections" about anything.

Typically you see that in a probate situation or where a property was bought from a bank foreclosure or it was an investor who just rehabbed it. Usually you want to be more careful with your inspections in these cases. Not necessarily to make more "asks" in the negotiation, but to reduce your assumptions that X won't be an issue (i.e., assume fewer things are OK and be more cautious about possible issues).

Besides the overall state of the market, which has taken more buyers out of the market and thus shifted more power to buyers vs. sellers, also look at that specific property, specifically its time on market and listing history.

If it was listed 6 months ago, didn't sell, and was relisted 2 months ago and has already been on market 50+ days before your offer was accepted, I'd think you'd be in a stronger position to make more asks from the inspection results, than if this was the first time it was listed and it's only been 3 DOM, and especially if there were multiple offers (though sometimes those are made-up so I'd give more weight to DOM than alleged other offers).