Consider These Tips When Negotiating Home Inspection Repairs With Sellers

You and the seller might agree on the perfect price point for both of you, but you still need to get over the hurdle of negotiating repairs. There are many ways that you might choose to go about repairing a wide variety of appliances, fixtures, and surfaces in the whole of your purchasing, but you need to be aware of all the strategies that you can employ to make the negotiation process go as smoothly as possible. If you’re buying a used home, it’s almost inevitable that it’s not going to be perfect, so you should definitely have a plan about what you consider important and what can wait.

Decide What You Want the Seller to Repair

One of your first steps is to decide what you would like the seller to repair. This can be determined on a case-by-case basis, but there are some repairs that you might prefer for the seller to make, and you might be just fine doing certain repairs all by yourself.

Make Your Priorities

You should also prioritize what you really want to be done. There might be numerous small repairs that need to be done and some big repairs that need attention but is not always realistic to go after every repair. Most often, one of the best strategies is to look at any defects that are glaring, very expensive, or pose a safety hazard. These are the ones that you’re going to want to negotiate with the seller on. But smaller issues, such as a broken tile on the kitchen floor, aren’t always worthwhile to spend time on.

Get Quotes

Getting quotes from the contractor is also a very important step because it gives you negotiating power and just lets you know how much something will cost. You might think you know how much a particular job is going to cost because your uncle just had it done to his house, but there might be hidden costs involved that weren’t issues with another person’s house. Getting quotes from a contractor will put you on much more solid ground when it comes to talking to the seller.

Do You Want Cash or the Repair?

Also know that you have the option of getting repairs or money. What you decide to do will be a negotiation between you and the seller, but you might have a preference. For instance, if you know an electrician who is willing to give you a really great deal on the new breaker box, you might decide that you would prefer cash as opposed to having the seller repair it for you. But if you don’t know of anyone who can help you out on an expensive project, or if you want to have a particular repair done by the time that you move in, you might prefer to have the seller take care of it for you before you even sign for the house. You should also understand that the seller is under no obligation to give you all of your requests, so it’s always best to move toward negotiations with an open mind.

When you’re looking to buy, you should find plenty of real estate agents in Dallas who are willing to help you with negotiations and other important steps in buying a house.