You may be asking yourself  “What constitutes as a stupid thing to negotiate from a home inspection report?” Over my years in this industry I’ve been part of a variety of transactions that were stuck in negotiations over extremely minor and stupid stuff that had me saying to myself “They really requested that to be fixed out of everything in that report??”. That, coupled with an inspiring podcast I recently listened to, inspired me to write this article. (TLDR? Click here)

Let’s start with some basics on what the purpose of a home inspection is. A home inspection is a visual only, non-invasive inspection of a home. The purpose of it is to provide the potential buyer of the home an idea of the condition of the home. That way the buyer can make an educated and informed decision on whether or not to proceed with purchasing the property.

The purpose of a home inspection IS NOT to be used as a tool to negotiate repairs, price adjustments, or money towards repairs. This is where people mistake the purpose of a home inspection. Almost always some type of negotiation takes place after the home inspection. Using the inspection report the buyer and their agent (if they have one) ask the seller to have things fixed, have the price dropped, or to get money towards repairs. The purpose of the inspection was lost along the way because buyers who were getting inspections were having completely different assumptions about a property than what the reality of it was. They therefore felt mislead and shorted on what they were purchasing, so negotiations started to arise from the home inspection reports.

The worst kind of client, in my opinion, is the one that the first thing they say is “Find lots of stuff so I can get the price of this house knocked down”.

This is absolute crap to me. This buyer is well aware of the price that the home is listed at and is also well aware of the price of home they are able to afford (realistically, not hypothetically based on what unrealistically high number a lender is willing to ignorantly give you). This person should not be counting on a list of defects in a home inspection report to get the price lowered to make it more of a deal or more affordable. Like I mentioned above, a home inspection is a tool meant to inform you of the condition of a home to help you make a well informed purchase decision, NOT to get the purchase price lowered.

What I am getting at is this: a home inspection should not be used to nickel and dime the seller. No house is perfect, not even new ones. The home inspection should be used to help you see what issues you are willing to live with or can have fixed yourself versus what issues are major, life threatening, or huge expense items. Let’s get into examples…

Scenario #1: You find the home of your dreams. Everything looks great, the seller discloses that the foundation leaks a little, you put a contract on it and get a home inspection. The home inspection report lists a leaking foundation as a defect. YOU SHOULD NOT USE THAT TO NEGOTIATE!! You already knew about it before you put an offer in. Using that as a negotiation point is irresponsible and childish on your part. If you wanted that fixed or if that was a deal breaker from the start you should have brought it up before you put an offer in or you should not have put in an offer in the first place!

Scenario #2: You find the home of your dreams. Everything looks great, the seller has no issues in the disclosure. The house is more than you can realistically afford but you put an offer in anyways. The home inspection report comes back and there are no major issues. There are just some minor things like missing caulk around windows, small cracks in the concrete driveway, a missing GFCI receptacle in the kitchen. Uh oh, you have nothing to negotiate on in terms of getting the price of the home lowered to an affordable level for you. What do you do? You submit a request for those small items to be fixed. What an absolute waste of everyone’s time. A few things that would cost under $30 total to repair and you are wasting time negotiating the sale of a house on THIRTY DOLLARS!?!?

Scenario #3: You find the home of your dreams. Everything looks great, seller has no issues in the disclosure. You have a home inspection done and the report comes back and there are some minor issues like caulk but the furnace has a visible crack in the heat exchanger. It will cost more to fix than the furnace than to replace it. THIS IS AN ITEM WORTH NEGOTIATING! As a buyer, home owner, and/or realtors involved none of them would have been able to see this without some kind of experience like a home inspector has. This is a surprise item that is worth negotiating the sale of the house on for two reasons: #1 It is expensive to repair. #2 It is a safety concern as a cracked heat exchanger can leak carbon monoxide into the house.

Can you see where I’m going with some of these examples? Don’t negotiate small dumb stuff that you could do yourself or have done easily and inexpensively. Also, don’t try to use the inspection as a tool to lower the price of the house.

Here are some examples of items YOU SHOULD NOT NEGOTIATE REPAIRS ON:

• Caulk or sealant of any kind anywhere
• Replacing receptacles or adding GFCI receptacles
• Things you already knew about before you put an offer in
• Things that are old but still work properly
• Peeling or chipping paint
• Anything cosmetic
• HVAC filters
• Dirty condenser
• Missing or torn window/door screens
• Anything that would be an upgrade
• Attic or wall insulation

Here are some examples of items YOU SHOULD NEGOTIATE REPAIRS ON:

• Furnace, AC, Water Heater, or any other major appliance is not working
• Anything that is a major leak (plumbing, roof, walls, etc.)
• Significant foundation problems like bowing, bulging, shearing, leaning walls or large cracks with displacement.
• Large amount of Mold
• Dangerous electrical panels like a FPE or Zinsco
• Solid aluminum wiring
• Knob & Tube wiring
• Overloaded electrical panels
• Significant chimney and fireplace repairs
• High levels of radon
• Main sewer line breaks or blockages
• Cracked furnace heat exchanger
• Back drafting appliances
• Presence of asbestos

I hope this list and article helped and I hope it created a better understanding of the purpose of a home inspection. If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me.