So you are under contract and you are negotiating those home inspection items and the seller just refuses to address that very last fix. You know the one - the one you swore you would not budge on. That was the one item that the seller just HAD to fix. 
Home buying is a crazy emotional roller coaster. I understand that; we do it everyday as Realtors, and I recall selling and buying my own house a couple of years ago - I thought I'd go nuts!
Well buyers need to make sure they put things into perspective. The above scenario is played out everyday someplace in our city. Buyers often see a repair(s) as "deal breakers". If they don't fix it - I'm walking away. Forget it. Well let's think about this for just a minute...
Is this repair really a huge, major expensive item or not? Many times it is only a few hundred dollars to correct. Let's say it's an old hot water heater that you are going to have to fix. The buyer needs to understand that if they replace it - they are going to get a decade or more of use from it - and they will most-likely be saving energy costs as a new model will be more energy efficient.
Walking away has a real cost. The buyer has paid for the home inspection. That's about $500. They have applied for the loan and ordered the appraisal; another $500 or more. Now let's take into account the time you spent looking for a home? The time you took off from work to go to the inspection. Now you want to walk-away and start the process all over again? Oh by the way; home prices jumped about 1/2% since last month - so that 400k house is now going to cost you an extra 2 grand.
Maybe now; just accepting the fact that you need to spend 5 or 6 hundred dollars makes much more sense.
Of course SELLERS - if the buyer does walk away for that $500 repair; do you think your home will sell for the same as it did with this buyer? Probably not. The world will see you had a contract and now you don't and no one pays full price for last months home (or last seasons clothes, shoes, etc). Seller - you will probably get at least 1% less for your home.
The moral of the story; everyone needs to come to a mutual agreement of repair items. The cost of either party walking away is too costly.
