Re-Negotiating Your Carmichael Home Purchase

Happy December to you! Only 25 more days till Christmas and 31 more days until 2007. What fun! Right now I have three clients who have been going through their inspection periods of their purchase of Carmichael homes. So I thought I’d post about that. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this, I’ll explain.

When Buyers get into contract to purchase a home in California they get a 17-day inspection period in which they can do all the inspections their heart desires. Usually it consists of a professional home inspector and maybe a family friend or relative whom the buyers deems smarter than they are. This is the most turbulent time for both parties because the Buyer can walk away from the deal if they are not happy.

The inspector may cost $300-500 but is worth every penny if they are a good one. You’ll find much more about the house than you’d ever expect. So the question here is: What do you do with this newfound information? You re-negotiate. That’s right after all the negotiating on price, and terms, and escrow you did and your Realtor on the original contract, you get one more go at it.

If a Buyer has found that the home is in need of serious repairs Buyer’s may request one or a combination of the following:

·        Seller to fix the problem

·        Seller to credit the Buyer so they can fix the problem

·        A lowering of the purchase price

An important piece of advice for Buyer’s is: Don’t nickel and dime the seller! You’re buying a house worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Don’t whine about a $50 problem! All you will do is upset the Seller and you want to keep the Seller happy with you so they will oblige your request. You want to be tactful. Usually, if there are no huge problems to report a Seller will give a Buyer a few thousand dollars or so to keep them happy because they know if the Buyer isn’t happy the Buyer can walk away from the deal. Usually I recommend to my clients that they just ask for a credit from the seller. It’s the easiest thing to do for both parties. If you ask a Seller to repair something you may bump heads on how it is repaired.

In response to the Buyer’s request the Seller can refuse, accept or try to negotiate the concession further. If a Seller is saying they are selling a house “as is” they are saying up front that they will likely refuse any requests for repairs or concessions.

As I mentioned above, Buyer’s must be tactful and with the knowledge of a professional Real Estate Consultant we can guide you through this turbulent re-negotiation process and get you to your destination on time. And make your home an even better value!