On Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:32:16 +0000 (UTC), (Dave
Martindale) wrote:

deke writes:

I've sold several homes in my life and every single one of them had a
big 'AS IS' on the face of the contract.

There was also a clause with bold print that said 'BUYER PAYS FOR ALL
INSPECTIONS AND REPAIRS'.

That's one way to do it, but not the only way. It's possible to argue
about things that "ought to have been done" in the normal course of
operating and maintaining the house.

For example: we bought a house a year and some ago. We paid for a home
inspector and made the purchase conditional on dealing with any problems
he found. He found two broken windows, and the seller agreed to fix
them. There were two gas fires, but one had the gas supply turned
off so the inspector couldn't inspect it (it's against his policy to
turn on stuff that's been turned off). The seller agreed to have both
fires turned on and serviced by a local dealer's service department.
There was a huge welded structure that used to be a "breakfast nook"
lying under the rear deck, and the seller agreed to get rid of it before
closing.

On the other hand, the inspector also pointed out that the hot water
heater and roof would need replacing nearly immediately. We tried to
get the seller to give us some credit against the anticipated cost, but
they argued that since the water heater and roof didn't appear to be
leaking yet, they didn't need immediate replacement. So we bought with
those in the condition they were in, knowing we'd need to replace them
soon.

Dave

I like the way it worked out for you. My method is probably not
legal in all other states, plus I always tried to price the house so
that there was room for the buyer to spend some money on repairs.