Client Psychology And The Inspector

Lenn....I also think most sellers feel that the "lower than expected" list price already reflects the cost of a new roof being given to the buyer within the price!!  also, quite often the agent wants the listing so badly that the wrong advice is being given to the seller at that time....but it all comes back to haunt them....

Lenn,  Great post!  I'm the type that likes to think ahead and I love the common sense you've stated so plainly,  yet I see so many agents go the politically correct route (or the realtorly correct route)  and leave things up to an inspector rather stepping out and speaking up!  Thanks for saying it right!

Verlyn 

Lenn,

Former roofer speaking:  FWIW, We don't do roof certifications here. 

I agree with you on the inspection costs.  The scary thing to me is... How many agents are schlepping folks into homes and cannot see moss on a roof or know it means the buyer better negotiate a roof or have the ready cash?

When I hear an agent say, and I have, "Let's see what the inspector says," I have to wonder how many inspection bills they will willingly stick the client for before they find "The House."

Lenn - Yes, I was reading throughSteve's posts last week and it was clear after commenting on a few that he had a real fixer upper with great blog fodder coming from just one property which he created 3 or 4 posts out of.  I confirmed this with him through an email. I guess, my point is that when a distressed property is in such dire need of repair it is usually marketed as an as-is sale and the home inspection is for informational puposes only.  In the example of listing s home to settle an estate, it's rather unlikely the seller will do anything to the property prior to listing it. I imagine we've all had a few of these unless we are exclusive to listing pristine condition homes.  

This is a very interesting post, and first of all I have to say I agree with you 100%!  Next item...I have posted similar thing like this over the years here on Active Rain...and was attacked verbally by agents that thought it was the job of the inspector to point out major defects.  As a buyer agent or a listing agent it is my responsibility to my client to make them aware of major issues before they blow the deal up!  If we see a home with major issues, I may advise my client not to waste their money and I point out the obvious reasons.  My words to them..."Next!"  For sellers, I point out the issues that will be major objections, and deal killers.  I only take the listing if the sellers correct the issue (and not a cosmetic camouflage!)  Also - full disclosure!

Lenn,

A room inspection certificate? Hmm. a good idea.

We mostly deal with condos, and roof is not part of the consideration, so this may be the reason these gems that you bring surprise me.

Thanks for bringing it up, it will help when I run into working with a buyer on a home.

Wait - And all this time I thought a roof was SUPPOSED to have plants growing out of them ... that's what I get for living in a thatch house.

I have a buyer right now who is drastically misrepresented by their very-green agent. Thankfully per the mortgage guidelines the termite damage to the property is required to be fixed prior to settlement, and that was my easy-way-in to let the buyer know it must be done. Their agent was going to let them buy a house with termite damage to the major support beams - and to get a credit at settlement for the damage. ?????? This guy must either be dying for a paycheck or plain stupid. Either way, I as a lender had to stick up for my buyer, a first time buyer who basically knows nothing. Sad. She has told me at least half a dozen times that she should have listened to my advice to get a different agent.

Lenn,

Yes when you see vegetation growing on the roof it is usually not a good sign.  Of course what really scares you is when someone comes up and asks what kind of paint can you use on a roof?  They explain they are just wanting to make a "cosmetic change".  Now this is where we as Realtor's run screaming in the other direction.  I mean if they are willing to try that what else have they done inside?

I just showed an as/is shorty sale this weekend with roof issues.  Actually we looked a few.  The buyer is not ruling them out if the price is right.  However, they are observant enough to figure they need new roofs and they are not relying on the inspection at this point.   In the above pictured Home...It's a No Brainer.   I would hope that the Listing agent put Cash/Conventional in the financing on the MLS to save the FHA and VA buyers some time and hopefully the buyers agent actually knows what type of financing their customer is obtaining.   

An offer on a FHA loan is different. I usually have the offer price based on needing a new roof and if the inspection does show a new roof and the sellers provides it all is well.  IF they will not then we have priced it in.  I do like your idea of making it a condition of the contract upfront.  I will keep that in mind.

You make some excellent points in this post and reblog and I agree up to a point on most of the items you mention. I was in construction for 16 years prior to entering real estate but never offer any advice as I am not a licensed inspector. Yes, I sometimes see things that are glaringly wrong and "mention" them. In Texas we have a pretty good inspector system that seems to work fairly well. Of course there are exceptions and rarely we run across an inspector who will do so much CYA they seem to be including the Apocalypse in a list of "possible" defects.

Whether working with buyers or my listings I want everything disclosed that is reasonably possible. A competent inspection will disclose things that many people would overlook or just not be aware of on a day to day basis. GREAT! I would rather know this up front and deal with it so that we don't have it come back later and a buyer thinks they've been duped in some way. Sometimes a seller gets upset and thinks an inspector is out to kill the deal by exposing issues but the fact remains that there IS an issue. Fix it now or fix it for the next buyer no matter, because once it's disclosed it needs to be done!

Lenn, no I did not get it wrong I just went off on a tangent about how sellers and AGENTS often go off on a tear thinking that inspectors are around to kill a deal or just make things up to justify the fee. I cracked up at the "Seller's mantra" ain't it the truth? 

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Hi Lenn,

I'm confused.  I am relatively new so I would really like you to clear something up for me.  My first broker told me and other new agents in our training, that we are not allowed to point anything out to the buyer or we would be "representing ourselves as home inspectors".  I have never liked his training on that, because we are not blind and my buyers are looking at me like, "don't you see that?" or don't you smell that?".  Please help me out on this.  Are we allowed to mention these obvious things first or do we have to wait until the buyers mention them to us?

The sellers probably knew the roof needed to be replaced, just as well or better than you did and probably accounted for that fact in their listing price.

Just because the roof is obviously bad doesn't mean you don't need an inspection.  Quite the contrary, if the roof is in that bad of condition, how many other things are wrong.  The roof inspection on most houses is one of the easier parts - try crawling around in a crawlspace sometime!