Depends on how good or bad the final report looks.
A home inspection leverages the fact that no home is perfect. There are going to be certain defects that cannot be overlooked and require remediation. By exposing those defects, a home inspection tips the scale in your favour.
If the home inspection report turns up with only a couple of defects, it’s a win-win for both the buyer and the seller.
But if the report looks bad; as a buyer, you have two choices. Either you call off the purchase and go looking somewhere else, or you can stick around. The latter gives you an opportunity to negotiate the price based on the findings. In case you have no clue how to go about it, your home inspector can advise you on this.
In almost every real estate transaction, a home inspection is the final precautionary measure before transferring the ownership of the property. And if you are looking at a home that has just been diagnosed with too many defects, here’s how you should proceed if you must buy that property.
Know the difference between a problem and a downright safety hazard.
A bad home inspection report shouldn’t scare you off because not all defects are serious. Sometimes, all it takes is a little elbow grease and a trip to the dollar store. But if there are explicit safety hazards that need to be addressed immediately, you can claim a heavy discount on the asking price or simply ask the seller to fix it for you.
For instance, a dripping faucet is a problem but a plumbing leakage behind the walls or beneath the floors is a safety hazard.
Try as you might, the seller won’t agree to repair everything that is asked of them. And right when you inch toward the middle ground, make sure you do not get the bad end of the deal. Therefore, it is important to do some thinking and prioritise issues that you want to be fixed first and leave the trivial ones to be used later for price negotiations.
If you want to know more about what happens after the home inspection, feel free to get in touch with one of our home inspectors to talk about your concerns and get honest advice.
