As homebuyers enter the spring 2023, many are empowered and some are hell bent on regaining control. That's not going to happen around the Greater Atlanta area, there is no impending onslaught of listings. Contingencies are back and agents better refresh themselves about solving home inspection issues. This is going to be one of the biggest challenges as markets return to balance.
Home Inspection Issues
Start at the beginning, are there legitimate home inspection issues? Every home, especially older existing ones, suffer from deferred maintenance. Buyers and agents can see obvious issues, account for that in price. Consider what's normal and to be expected. Best advice might be:
Code issues should be corrected. The caveat here should be obvious, consider codes appropriate for when the home was built. Asking a seller to bring a home to current code if things function fine will likely be rejected; rightfully so. A home from the 50's is not going to be built to the code levels as a new home. If something isn't operational, then fix it. But if things function safely...
Which leads to safety issues. Those are a red line, if there are legitimate safety
issues then a buyer should ask for them to be repaired or a concession made. Of course inspectors CYA so they will flag electrical and system concerns the same as they would distance between railing balusters. Use common sense.
In some cases, appraisers will flag issues. FHA requires certain checks as does VA and some conventional lenders. Appraisers have the ability to make reports "subject to" and that can be another challenge to closing a deal.
Get ready, get educated and keep the buyers and sellers focused on getting deals done.
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