On 15 Apr 2007 21:40:15 -0700, "Joe" wrote:

On Apr 15, 5:29 am, "Alex" wrote:
Hello,

The house my wife and I are looking at buying has what I'd call faux
stone on the outside of the front, and at some point they added a hole
to the front living room (next to front door) for an A/C unit. I'd
like to patch this up,

snip

If you haven't bought the house, why not have the owner do the repair?
He may have a better idea of the product and you won't have to waste
your time chasing materials for the repair. Insist that it be done
properly

I know how to insist, but how does insisting ensure that it is done
properly?

Can one really substitute the seller's opinion as to what is
'properly' for one's own. Even if he has taste some of the time, how
will he get enough energy to insist, when he is moving.

In addition he may dawdle, and although they say the market is down,
its not down everywhere for all houses. While he's saying to himself,
I have to get a contractor, someone may come by and offer him almost
as much as the OP is going to offer.

I say this becasue if I were in the seller's shoes, the last thing I
would want to do is go find a contractor to repair this. I would have
done it years ago if I didn't hate looking for and bargaining with
contractors, then judgging their work and deciding whether to complain
or not. That's at least half the reason I do things myself, just so I
won't have to do that.

or if not, get an estimate of the cost and deduct it from the
selling price. HTH

That sounds good.

Joe