Well, lets establish something first: An inspection is paid for by the buyers and the inspection report belongs to them not the seller. And if a buyer chooses to not share that report with the sellers, its really their business. In fact, I just closed a transaction where my sellers, as curious as they were, never got to see the inspection report. Buyer decided that they didn't want to ask the sellers for any repairs and did not disclose the report to the sellers. Everyone was satisfied with the outcome and that's all I can wish for.
In the state of California, in the Residential Purchase Contract, (RPA), by default, a buyer is given 17 days to finish all their investigations. That means Home Inspection, Roof Inspection (if a buyer decides to do one) Well Inspection, Septic, or whatever other inspection they want to do must be done in that time frame. But just because that is the "default" time frame, that does not mean it always stays the same. It's your realtor's job to watch over the timelines of a transaction and keep you posted of them. So, after the inspection is completed and the report is sent to the buyer, one of the following scenarios will take place:
-Buyer will look at it and decide that they don't want to purchase the property any more and ask for cancellation of the contract. (Not very common scenario) They must have seen something spine-chilling in the report that made them change their mind. I have not seen that happen with the newer (built after 2000) homes. Nevertheless, it is a possible scenario.
-After looking it over, buyer decides that they are completely satisfied with the results and removes the Inspection Contingency (Least common scenario) This does not happen too often but I just had it happen with my last transaction. My client, the seller, was a skilled handyman and had really taken care of everything prior to putting the house on the market. As a service to my clients I went over the house with them and pointed out the things that I thought might have been an issue and he went ahead and took care of them. (See my previous post on how to make your house ready for sale)
-Buyer will look it over and decides to ask for repairs. (Most common scenario) In a Request For Repair form, buyer will then itemize the repairs he is asking for and submits it to the seller. (Remember everything is negotiable) At this point, seller may accept to do all the work/some of the work/ or not accept to do any of it at all. It all depends on many factors. In real estate, everything is about communication and it's the job of the two agents to help their clients through this process so everybody wins. How I advise my clients is completely a case by case thing. Let me give you an example:
I was representing a client in purchasing a home in Natomas a few months ago. Before submitting the offer, I called and asked the listing agent if they had any offers and if they did how many and for how much. (At times they disclose and times they don't but it doesn't hurt to ask) He told me that they had several offers at and below asking price and that their terms were not exactly the best terms. So I asked my client if he is okay with offering a bit over the asking and he said he was. He really wanted to have the property. So we offered a bit above and got our offer accepted. When we did the home inspection, about $700 worth of repairs came up, including a microwave which was not working properly. Since we had offered more, I felt we could easily ask for the repairs. We did and we got more than we had asked for: the seller said instead of doing the repairs, he would credit my buyer $700 at the close of escrow so my buyer would do the repair himself. Buyer did the repair for $400 and was absolutely satisfied.
All parties were satisfied and that is all I could ask for.
Loved it.
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