The standard home inspection that occurs before a home sell can be stressful. While you always hope that everything will check out fine, this is not always the case. This isn’t that big of a deal if the home has obvious imperfections that you knew about when you put it on the market. But if it comes as a surprise, keeping your cool can be a bit more challenging. Here’s how to go about negotiating these issues in the most stress-free way possible.
First of all, change your mindset. You may feel like you wish you’d never inspected your home. But instead think of your bad inspection results as a helpful way to eliminate lawsuits in the future. If you promise to help the buyer with repairs, it’s likely they will waive liability for later problems in exchange. If you’re surprised at the inspection findings, don’t tell the buyer you feel this way. A large number of buyers actually expect to have to have to do some repairs. Approach the negotiation in a way that doesn’t tell the buyer to make a big leap. Instead, go into the negotiation expecting to make a compromise.
When the buyer asks you to help fix the issues, you can take control over the situation. Schedule a meeting with your realtor. With the realtor, you can review the report and talk about the standard negotiating solutions that are utilized in your area.
This is just the beginning of your proactive plan. Now, you’ll need to get a couple of bids on the most highly priced items from repair companies that you choose. You may be able to get the repair completed for less. Some contractors will even agree to take payment at close of escrow if money is tight. Having multiple bids gives you a lot of options. It also can alleviate any concerns you may have that the buyer’s team was upping the repair costs to get more money out of you.
Getting multiple bids also shows the buyer that the repair might not be as costly or as urgent as they thought. This can ease the tensions and set the tone for compromise. There are an endless number of compromise options. You can do some repairs, reduce the price, or give the buyer a credit. If you really can’t afford to do either of these, it is possible you can do nothing at all if the buyer agrees to this.
The best way to avoid stress in the selling process after a bad home inspection is to accept the things that are out of your control. If you remain calm and stay committed to compromise, everything should work out between you and the buyer.