We didn’t have the luxury of time to list the house. Mom’s move was necessitated by a fall. Selling the house and fast is the best option because we do not want mom to second guess her move.
We interviewed 2 different realtors and it seems that this tag team approach is the norm. The other realtor told us he would represent both sides and wouldn’t be able to represent mom (he actually said that!). So this was the better option.
In the end the house sold for more than we imagined and more than the first agent wanted or thought it would sell for. It’s just the annoyance for me. But it’s sold and the estate sale is this weekend.
I just want to say that I am sorry about your mother and glad the house sale went through. That is always difficult, and I’m sorry the buyers made it more so. The past three homes we have purchased have all been in similar circumstances (though with houses much older than your mom’s) and we tried to be sensitive to the situation.
We have (unfortunately) had to make a number of purchases and sales over the past ten years across the country due to moves for job loss/change. (I have now bought and sold in seven states in the past 22 years.) One thing I notice is how different the inspection issue is in different local areas. For instance, on online fora, posters from California and certain NE metro areas always firmly assert “The seller has to fix anything that is a structural or safety issue” because maybe it is true where they live, and they don’t seem to understand that across most of the country, the sellers don’t have to fix anything at all. Nada. Customs and regulations absolutely differ place to place.
We tend to offer money to the buyers for a collection of small things that are requested. Usually $1000-$2000 which for us tends to be .5-1% of the selling price.
The house we are about to sell after S23 graduates we had to buy with NO inspections to get it in late 2020. We had an inspection ourselves after, and the guy didn’t even notice that the sewer was venting into the attic space, so I don’t know it would have done any good. (I figured that one out, and we paid to have it vented properly.) The house we are moving to (where my husband already lives in another state) had a 7 year old Trane that passed inspection and now has a motor defect so we have no heat. It also only has only two prong plug outlsets though out including the kitchen (no GCFIs in this kitchen and no plugs at all in the pink tiled bathroom) and the panel is that kind that might be illegal to even sell the house for habitation in California, but here it was noted in the inspection report, and we just planned on having to redo stuff ourselves. There were multiple offers. (The furnace however was a surprise 6 months after closing.)
Basically, if it is small stuff and we are sellers, we throw a little money at it or get a handyman. For our house we are about to sell, we will favor any buyers who don’t want an inspection even for a lower cost. It’s 125 year old somewhat run-down farmhouse that wasn’t nice even 125 years ago. We can’t deal with buyers who are using California standards! So maybe your buyers were coming from an area where it’s normal to demand a bunch of small things?
Selling my old house with a 30 year old roof, buyers were concerned as was my market appraiser. It was fine for a number of years into the future, and worth getting a roofer to write that out as inspectors don’t always know. The new owners have not replaced the roof still.
As a motivated buyer for my new place, I split costs on items found on inspection, such as need for a new driveway and a few other things. And knew that a lot of 90 year old house funk was mine to deal with in time.
I wonder if inspections have gotten more stringent/nit picky in more recent times. While yes, we certainly want to know major issues like foundation, bad electrical, major plumbing or HVAC issues I guess I don’t assume most homes we look at (we tend to prefer older homes) will be “perfect”.
I feel like there is a little bit of a mentality now - 2023 - MAYBE for younger home owners that the home they want should be as move in ready and “perfect” for them. Thus the asking for light bulbs, and who knows what else to be replaced???
Now we are not looking at a million dollar home either…
The expectations definitely changed. Instagram and HGTV are partially to blame. Also, the younger generation doesn’t seem to be as handy with tools as we used to be, at least in our personal observations.
Maybe, but when we sold ours in 2006 to a couple in their 50s, we were asked to have an electrical outlet among other misc. items fixed as part of the inspection. The total repairs cost $150. And the house was only little over $100K, so definitely nothing special!
This is absolutely true. The first offer on our previous house came from people moving to AZ from IL. They did not want to pay our asking price because, although they loved the layout and location, they felt they needed to rip out the cabinets and the flooring (to suit, not because of dating or damage) and would need at least a $50K allowance. Our realtor told them bluntly that their design choices did not determine the price of real estate in AZ. Undeterred, they tried another tack – mold! I guess in IL and wetter climates, mold inspections are a surefire way to get a better deal on a house because almost every house has some detectable spores and eradicating mold is very expensive. They wanted US to pay the $1,800 cost of a mold inspection! Realtor said absolutely not; this house is in the desert and, although mold could possibly exist under unusual circumstances, they would not find mold in this house. If they wanted a mold inspection, go ahead, but they’d have to pay for it. And they did it. (We let them because, hey why not, a report that certified no mold couldn’t hurt.) Of course, no mold. They then wanted a few other things that I guess were common when selling homes in IL. Our realtor told us to walk on them–fast. We did. Good riddance.
When we sold our home in NY in 1993, I thought the buyer’s inspection was pretty picky. They noted small things like hot/cold accidentally reversed on kitchen sink (all of the sudden hubby was able to fix that faucet install problem), no handrail on front stoop (same on other homes in our older area - not fixed), asbestos on basement pipes (fixed) and more. When we had purchased that home in 1985, our inspection for mortgage called out the 60 amp electrical service - the sellers paid to have it upgraded to 100 amps, but they were livid about it.
I don’t know if that is CA law or just tradition although I do remember that when we bought our house the seller replaced a few pieces of wood underneath the house that showed termite damage.
For most of the past 25+ years out here in much of CA it has been a sellers market because of the persistent housing shortage. In my region the seller has the house inspected prior to putting it on the market and puts the report in the disclosure package. Especially when homes are selling for well over asking (comes and goes with the economy) it is common for bids to be “as-is”.
^^Was the same in our neck of the WA woods. Anything disclosed is negotiable; the buyer can ask but the seller is not obligated to fix. If there are multiple bids, the seller generally would take the one that doesn’t ask for fixes. Non-disclosed, known issues, especially those that the seller tried to conceal, are a different story: the buyer either walks or gets a $$ reduction.
Personally, I wouldn’t want the seller to fix anything, because they will look for the cheapest fix, not necessarily the best.
A quality inspection should be detailed and nitpicky, listing both major issues and issues that are minor enough, that the owner/seller may not want to fix. The inspection should reveal everything that falls within the inspection criteria.
For example, I purchased my home many years before the recent COVID fueled boom, yet my inspection report still had 20+ pages, with great detail. It didn’t just list issues to be repaired. Most of the report described conditions, even when there was not a problem that needed to be fixed. When there were imperfections they were labeled according to severity – major repair, minor repair, recommendation, maintenance, observation, safety concern, investigate further, etc. Light bulbs needing replacing were listed in the report, under the “maintenance” label.
What may be different is how much the average buyer requests being fixed and/or what the seller agrees to fixing. This can relate to whether it is a buyers/sellers market and demand for the specific home. If the owner chooses to not do requested repairs and/or not offer other favorable conditions for buyer in response to inspection issues (reduced price, add home warranty, change other terms that favor buyer), it may increase chance that the buyer walks away from the deal. If there are many other buyers hoping to get the home at a similar price and it will be difficult for the buyer to get an alternative, the seller may not be concerned about the buyer walking and may feel more comfortable with replying back to do no/few repairs. In recent times, an increased number of home sales have been sold “as is”, sometimes at request of buyer to increase chance that the buyer is favored over other similarly sized bids.
This is what I really meant - thank you! Yes, inspections are meant to be very thorough and detailed in a document so long you often age just reading it…lol.
Inspections reports but not inspections themselves definitely got more detailed.
Houses we sold. First house (1999): 10 pages. Minor issues. Inspector has to find at least 3 or they are not doing their job. House1 (sold 2017): 60 pages. Similar minor issues (akin to a burned lightbulb). What is different now? Lots of photos and the use of software specifically designed to spit out inspection reports. We paid for 3 inspections in 2017 when looking for House2. All were 50-60 pages long. One home had zero issues (builder’s own house - a real dream for a buyer!). One had a big issue ($200k fix if the siding inspection indicated failing EIFS - we decided not to pursue this house). House2 came with lots of issues, but they were fixable piecemeal. We did get some $$ for the issue the seller tried to conceal and did not disclose.
I remember on both the home inspections we had done when buying houses, that the detailed inspection was useful in other ways. They included maintenance tips and suggestions (even simple stuff like change HVAC filter every 6 months, etc.) As young home buyers, these tips were very useful.
Sold a house about 9 months ago in a very hot market. Had a bid over asking before it listed. Same scenario as OP, persnickety parents moving to senior living.
Inspection report was rather petty, and I just addressed issues. I think it cost less than $500!
Fwiw, a burnt out light bulb is petty. BUT if they didn’t know why the light didn’t come on, fair request - wiring in attic could help been chewed by rodents and been a bigger problem.
We took $ when we moved into our house rather than demanding repairs. In retrospect, being new to the area, we had a harder time finding handymen, etc than buyer would have. Otoh, we did get to fix things the way we wanted. I understand both sides of this…
When we were selling our house, the buyer’s inspector said, “You know, there’s really nothing supporting the stairs down to the basement…” Oops, kind of embarrassing for owners who are both structural engineers. I ended up being on the board of our state engineers’ association with that inspector. He didn’t remember the story!
and the estate sale is this weekend.
House1 (sold 2017): 60 pages. Similar minor issues (akin to a burned lightbulb). What is different now? Lots of photos and the use of software specifically designed to spit out inspection reports. We paid for 3 inspections in 2017 when looking for House2. All were 50-60 pages long. One home had zero issues (builder’s own house - a real dream for a buyer!). One had a big issue ($200k fix if the siding inspection indicated failing EIFS - we decided not to pursue this house). House2 came with lots of issues, but they were fixable piecemeal. We did get some $$ for the issue the seller tried to conceal and did not disclose.