$5,000, Seriously?!
I love surprises.
Sometimes my wife will bring me home a cool notebook she found while she was out.
Maybe a bag of salt and vinegar kettle chips.
Sometimes our kids will sneak up to our bedroom and make our bed for us.
Those surprises I love. Anytime you want to surprise me with something like that I’m all for it. Although you don’t need to sneak into my house and make my bed. Leave that for my kids.
One thing I don’t like is real estate inspection surprises.
Missing AC unit.
Patches of shingles missing.
Radon gas.
Wiring issues.
Ask any real estate agent. I’m sure they can tell you a couple horror stories.
I’m not going to lie to you if you represent the buyer and the inspection comes back with surprises sometimes it means a new AC unit. Often a lower purchase price. Sucks for the seller. It means a lower sale price and lower equity.
Not long ago I had someone request $5,000 because of a broken window pane in a double pane window.
Seriously.
It wasn’t even a big window.
$5,000 is ridiculous.
I don’t know when it became the buyer’s responsibility to inspect homes. I mean I understand it. The buyer wants to make sure there aren’t any major issues. It is important to protect yourself.
What I don’t understand is houses being listed before a home inspection is done.
Why aren’t sellers protecting themselves?
Why aren’t agents encouraging sellers to protect themselves?
Why has the house made it past the eyes of real estate expert? Been professional photographed (maybe?). Stagged. Cleaned. Priced. Marketed. Had an open house. Shown a dozen times. All without knowing that the AC unit is missing. Or that there are multiple animals living in the attic in their own sort of zen utopia in the insulation. Or any other number of things that SHOULD NEVER be a surprise found by the BUYER’S home inspector.
I would even say it is the equivalent of real estate malpractice.
If you a thinking of selling your home seriously consider getting your home inspected before you list it.
If you are a real estate agent please, please, take care of your clients and their equity.
I don’t know anyone that wants to lower a purchase price to accommodate a buyer thinking $5,000 is the going rate to fix a window