Inspection

Hi what I would like to talk about today is the inspection process when a home is sold. What I have found is that after a deal has been negotiated it seems like the buyer wants to further negotiate at the inspection by trying to find things that are wrong with the home. I can't tell you how many times I have sold a home and then at inspection I hear the client say "take pictures and write everything down because we can try to negotiate further". I am speaking of both situations of representing the buyer and the seller. Therefore, when I negotiate a great deal for my client on the buying side I usually always tell my buyers that unless there is something seriously wrong that has not been disclosed we are not going to use this inspection as a tool to renegotiate or you will risk losing this home. On the sellers side when a buyers agent has negotiated a good deal I will tell the buyers agent do not come to me with again anything that is not seriously wrong with home and not disclosed because we will not renegotiate. I find by using this tactic everyone is on the same page and it saves the potential for the deal to go south by either upseting the seller or buyer where eveyone loses.

You also have to be careful of the inspector you use because some feel that unless they find something wrong they feel like the client feels like they paid for nothing. Not too long ago I neogtiated a deal for my buyer that was great, the home was 500,000 and we negotiated down to 417,000, the seller made no money. The home was new so basically the city had inspected it and everything was to code. Regardless, we had an inpsection done and when the inspector called me he was very inpressed with the home and said it was a great built home. I did not happen to be at the inspection (which probably was not a good idea) and found out later that the inspector had pointed out some things that he suggested to change but was not necessary. Long story short my buyer calls me and tells me that the inspector said that there was not a fan over the stove and that there should defintely be one so went on further to say that she had ordered a fancy fan vent costing 2500 dollars and wanted the seller to pay or else she would not buy the home. Well, I called the inspector and asked why would you say there was something wrong when it passed code by city inspector and his anwer was because if we don't find something wrong with the home it makes me look bad and you look bad. I asked why? He said because then they think they did not need my inspection and wasted their money and then I provide no value. I said the purpose of the inspection is to make sure that there is nothing majorly wrong and that he/she is fully aware of everything with the home before the buyer continues with the purchase and now I have a buyer wanting a 2500 dollar vent fan which is ridiculous. My buyer kept on threatening she would not close and well needless to say the seller would not pay for such luxury so I played my buyers bluff and said walk away from the deal if you feel you don't agree. She realized at that point that she was not going to win infact she would lose the opportunity to buy a very undervalued home and we closed the deal. Needless to say I never used that inspector again because there are many things that can avoid a closing and an inspectors foolishness is not going to be one of them. Please don't let it be one of your reasons for not closing.

Sincerely Ann Byer