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Home Inspections: 4 Tips to Avoid the Buyer and Seller Freak Outs.

By The Somers Team

Real Estate Agent with The Somers Team at KW Philadelphia

July 12, 2009 11:34 PM

Home Inspections: 4 Tips to Avoid the Buyer and Seller Freak Outs.

Home Inspections - The process of a Seller waiting for the results of a Home Inspection is incredibly stressful. Every Realtor knows that no matter how New or Old a property is, things pop up in Home Inspections. I do not think I have ever seen a Home Inspection Report that came back perfectly clean. Folks, perfect is an imaginary word !

Many Buyers do not take into consideration how Home Inspections effect the seller and vice versa. Each party has their own list of things to worry about. It is a stressful process !! But whether you are a Buyer or a Seller take a step back. Take a deep breath. There are a few points you may want to think about. Are you a Buyer doing every possible inspection known to man-kind? Perhaps you are Seller psyching your self up for an invetable Home Inspection from Hell ! There may be a way to diffuse knee-jerk and emotional reactions to these Home Inspections.

Avoid the Freak Out! Get Perspective !!

1) Understand and Sympathize: The buyer is nervous too ! They have heard horror stories about "Shady Sellers". They have watched "The Money Pit" like 1 million times. They are extra sensitive and often on the defensive when going into a purchase. They feel that they can not afford to make a mistake. Buying and selling a home is the largest financial transaction an average person will ever do in their entire life. It is a big deal.

2) Money Ain't Free: Remember Sellers... The Buyer is spending extra money on all of the inspections. That money is not going to come back to them no matter what. That must mean they are looking for something of significant value in return. People do not spend money just to play games. (Dave & Busters is the exception of course.) Buyers get independent Home Inspections with the expectation that they will receive solid information. Buyers who do inspections do not want to sabotage the deal ! They want to test the product they are buying. Mind you the procedure may feel more like root canal to both parties. It is something that the buyer must do out of due diligence.

3) You've Got The Power: The Seller can reject the results of the inspection as well as refuse to correct or address anything that comes up on the inspections as the agreement of sale stipulates. The Buyer can do the same. If you cannot come to a mutual agreement regarding the inspections then the deal can end.

4) What is Done in Secret will be Brought into the Light: What I mean by that is Disclose! Disclose! Disclose! is as important as Location! Location! Location! when it comes to Real Estate. Whatever you know about your property, good bad or ugly, disclose it ! Whatever comes out about the property through inspections must be disclosed to future buyers if the deal never settles. Reveal everything and less harm will be done than if you do not disclose the truth about your property. Honesty will negate post settlement legal action. It diffuses the stress involved.

We hope these 4 tips are helpful to both buyers and sellers ! If you find the information informative, please subscribe to our blog ! Is only a click away ! If you are in our neck of the woods, please contact us via phone or email or ask about our new office location in Northern Liberties !

If interested in buying or selling properties in Philadelphia, contact Chris and Stephanie Somers at thesomersteam@yahoo.com or 215-400-2612 . You can connect with us on Facebook and Twitter . For investment properties, check out our new investor site at Philly Investor Hub and ask us about Philadelphia Foreclosures and Short Sales .

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Jeff Belonger

Social Media - Infinity Home Mortgage Company, Inc - Cherry Hill, NJ

The FHA Expert - FHA Loans - FHA mortgages - USDA loans - VA Loans

Christopher & Stephanie... huh? What? Money isn't free? That gov't has been lying to me again... lol Seriously, you have some good tips in here and some clarification on the process and the stress that goes with it. Nice job on this one.

jeff belonger

Jul 13, 2009 03:14 AM

Kristi DeFazio

RE/MAX Advantage - Colorado Springs, CO

Colorado Springs Rea lEstate 719-459-5468

I like when my sellers do an inspection before listing- then no surprises and everything is disclosed. This is part of our certified pre-owned home offering.

Jul 13, 2009 03:24 AM

Bridget Cella

Re/Max Connection - Sewell, NJ

e-Pro, Realtor

I am wondering how many people got the "Dave and Busters" part of your blog- I know I did. But I have never been there. Hardley ever make it over the bridge even though it is only 15 minutes away! Hope you are enjoying your summer.

Jul 13, 2009 03:35 AM

Brian McSpadden

The Integrity Inspection Group - Cookeville, TN

The Pre-Inspection is a good idea. We encourage sellers to get "Seller Inspections." In the current market we see less back and forth between buyers and sellers. The buyers seem to "trust" the seller more. It seems odd when the buyer brings in their own inspector and they find less or miss things that the seller chose not to fix from our report.

In many cases agents are telling us that deals go through smoother with the pre-inspections.

Jul 13, 2009 03:36 AM

Dee Neal

Palmer House Properties - Alpharetta, GA

Atlanta Area Real Estate

you're right. i always reiterate that we have choices. the seller can accept, reject, or counter. i let my buyers and my sellers know. but let's not forget that shady inspectors can throw a wrench in the deal when they are hungry for money by making a mountain out of molehill. kill the deal and then they'll pay him for another. not worth it. before an inspection, i advise my buyers that while i am not an inspector, i am pretty well versed on the typical issues that they may see since mostly all of these homes here are around the same age and somethings jsut come up in every house. when they know what they are going to get, then they dont freak out.

Jul 13, 2009 04:16 AM

Bill Jenkins

Classic Homes Realty - Danville, IL

Pre-Inspections are the best. Prepare your sellers and your buyers. Its not that difficult to be frank with them. The biggest problem is home buyers develop what I call ownership prior to actually owning the home. Its important to stress "significant" and "non-functional" as to being the most important issues at hand when dealing with buyers. Every-one wants the perfect home!

Jul 13, 2009 07:00 AM

Anonymous

Some Good Points. It is stressful when buyer expects absolute perfection in condition when buying older homes. I do agree with another response, that deferred maintenance is the real stress!

Jul 13, 2009 07:12 AM

#22

Joshua Haight

Keller Williams - Lincoln, CA

Some Good Points. It is stressful when buyer expects absolute perfection in condition when buying older homes. I do agree with another response, that deferred maintenance is the real stress!

Jul 13, 2009 07:13 AM

Eileen Hsu

Douglas Elliman Real Estate - Manhattan, NY

LICENSED REAL ESTATE SALESPERSON

Great post, although there is no formal inspection process in Manhattan New York Real Estate, it is good to keep our buyers informed on what is going on with the property and keep their expectation in checked! Thanks

Jul 13, 2009 08:15 AM

Anonymous

Traci (Long time lurker. First time commentor)

I like the tone of your article. I've recently been both a buyer and a seller. As a buyer, we did the usual inspection eventhough the home was 2006 and hardly lived in. But we also paid an additional $425 to have a creek expert come out and assure my husband that our fantastic new house wasn't going to fall into the creek anytime soon. Our inspector gave us a list of items to correct, but we signed off on the inspection without any requests because we appreciated the good deal we were getting.

Later, as sellers, we put over $13k into sprucing up master & bath (we never even lived in the improved space), new front door, and painting home and deck for sale. Our house shows newer than any other in the area with high profile base boards, satin nickel finishes everywhere and custom wood blinds and roman shades to name a few upgrades. And we were upfront and offered a new roof during escrow for any buyer. They even got to pick the color. We also entered the market $10k less than our competition. When we finally got a buyer and their offer was l-o-w, we didn't get offended. We offered them a very attractive counter that they jumped at, coming off our list price and paying sizeable closing costs.

So you can imagine how LIVID I was to get the inspection back with a request to upgrade the new roof's tar paper and fix piddly stuff like a garage door hinge. No plumbing, HVAC, winsow, electrical, moisture, bug, structural problems, etc...just a handful of piddly items like insulation fluffiness that they requested we fix. I was so ready to let them walk. Thank goodness for 3 day counter periods. I was able to cool off and come to a consensus with my husband and realtor. But there were no additional dollar concessions and they can fork the insulation...to increase the fluffiness, I mean. ;)

Jul 13, 2009 08:41 AM

#25

Ruthmarie Hicks

Keller Williams NY Realty - 120 Bloomingdale Road #101, White Plains NY 10605 - White Plains, NY

Too many buyers think the inspection is a negotiating tool. It's not. Unless there is a VALID structural problem, there is no reason to reopen negotiations. If something can be "repaired" that does not mean the buyer can demand it be replaced. I ran into that recently and its infuriating. Something wasn't working - they didn't want it fixed, they wanted it replaced. Sorry, that's not what an inspection is about.

Jul 13, 2009 09:22 AM

The Somers Team

The Somers Team at KW Philadelphia - Philadelphia, PA

Delivering Real Estate Happiness

Ruthmarie- Right on! Replacement requests are valid when a system is completely no-functional.

Traci- Thanks for sharing that real life experience. I am a bit of a hot-head myself and the best thing you did was "cool off". Chris is much calmer than I am but I am learning :)

Ellen- We ar all jealous! A world with no Home Inspections... unimaginable!

No Name Commenter- Your comment is so true. If we would just keep up with the maintenance of our homes.

Bill- We do want a perfect home. It is nice to dream.

Dee- Right! Sellers and Buyers have a choice in the process.

Brian- I am a huge fan of pre-inspections too.

Bridget- What? You aren't a Gamer? I have never been to Dave and Busters either.

Jeff- Umm... Noooo, money is not for free and there is no such thing as the Mortgage Fairy either : )

Jul 13, 2009 10:11 AM

Tina Maraj

RE/MAX One - Fullerton, CA

Celebrating 30 Years of Real Estate Sales

I just wrote about home inspectors this morning! Thanks for the tips!

Jul 14, 2009 03:20 AM

Anonymous

Monica Flores

Hi, Chris & Steph, Love the blogs, lots of great, fun to read, information!

Jul 16, 2009 01:24 AM

#29

The Somers Team

The Somers Team at KW Philadelphia - Philadelphia, PA

Delivering Real Estate Happiness

Tina - Will have to check out your blog post as well !

Monica - Thanks for the comment ! Great to see you here : )

Jul 19, 2009 01:34 PM

Gita Bantwal

RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA

REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

Thanks for the great tips. I had a buyer who was buyinng a two year old house and freaked out because of nail pops. He wanted the house painted.

Jul 21, 2009 10:57 PM

Janice Roosevelt

Keller Williams Brandywine Valley - West Chester, PA

OICP ABR, ePRO,Ecobroker

I'm with the group that home inspections PRIOR to listing the property would take out alot of hassle. Good points!

Dec 07, 2009 10:29 PM

Anonymous

Sheryl

So I have a question. I am buying an old home and I am going to hire an inspector. I am reluctant to use the realtor's suggested inspector because I wonder if the inspector's judgement may be compromised by a relationship with the realtor. Am I being paranoid or smart?

Jul 05, 2010 10:00 PM

#33

The Somers Team

The Somers Team at KW Philadelphia - Philadelphia, PA

Delivering Real Estate Happiness

Sheryl- Is the inspector being recommended by your agent ? And is that agent also representing the seller ? When we represent a buyer, we have a preferred list of home inspectors that we suggest the buyer pick one because we know each of them does excellent work. You can also ask around or dome some research on the Internet. You just want to make sure, especially on an older home, that you get someone who really is a professional home inspector, one who communicates well and is a consummate professional. Hope that helps !

Jul 06, 2010 12:27 AM

Tony and Suzanne Marriott, Associate Brokers

Serving the Greater Phoenix and Scottsdale Metropolitan Area - Scottsdale, AZ

Haven Express @ Keller Williams Arizona Realty

Contrary to popular opinion, Buyer Inspection Period is not an opportunity for a "free look". The Buyer must act in "Good Faith" when making a decision to cancel during the inspection period. Deciding they no longer like the floor plan doesn't count.....

Aug 17, 2010 02:50 AM