On Jun 20, 9:49*am, Steve wrote:
"badgolferman" wrote :





Greetings,

I am purchasing a brick rancher house built in 1967 and had a home
inspection done yesterday. *Some of the major items found we

1) A crack in the exterior brick siding from the top corner of a
window towards the roof. *The crack is rotational in nature and turns
counter-clockwise as it gets higher. *The inspector crawled under the
house and inspected the support structure of the wall and stated it
is not related to the foundation but will need the attention of a
brick mason. *There are also other minor cracks or in reality mortar
separations on a few other areas of the exterior walls.

2) Washer/dryer hookups are located in the attached garage. *There is
no dryer duct to the outside and really no easy way to run one to an
outside wall considering the house has brick veneer. *I am unsure
whether this is a major issue.

3) The house was originally built with an oil burning furnace and has
an underground tank. *It now uses natural gas and the furnace/AC are
around 3 years old. *The inspector suggests ensuring the underground
tank has been pumped dry.

4) The roof shingles are cracked, torn, improperly spaced, nail pops
and cut crookedly along the roof edges. *The boots around the vents
are torn and/or dry-rotted. *It is at least 15 years old. *There are
two roof fans installed.

There are various other minor items found that I can deal with myself
and don't want to overwhelm the seller.

I am interested in suggestions on how to approach these issues and
what to look out for.

You (your agent, actually) will give the seller a list of the things you
want fixed before you buy the house. There's an implied threat that you
won't buy the house unless he fixes these items or gives you money off
the selling price to fix them yourself.

The seller will counter with an offer to fix some of the items, but not
all.

You go back and forth on this list until the two of you come to an
agreement.

Strategy:
Make sure your original list contains _all_ the items you really want
fixed. Pad it with some things you don't really care about. During the
back and forth, sacrifice the items you don't care about so you look
like a good guy. Realize that you might not get everything. Accepting
money is better than having the seller do the work, because you can get
it done the way you like.

Interesting story:
A client in Highland Park (hoity-toity suburb of Dallas) gave me a long
list of things to do to get his house ready to sell--replace ceiling fan
with prettier one, fix fallen stone veneer, paint trim at roof, ...; it
was a long list. I replaced the fan because it was easy, then repaired
the fallen stone. I told him I'd be back to do the rest. He got an offer
the next day, and called to tell me to hurry and fix the rest,
especially the missing stone in the wall behind the bush. I told him to
wait and see what the buyer wanted fixed. Surprise: the buyer didn't
want anything fixed. Moral: What you consider a problem has no bearing
on what someone else considers a problem.

--
Steve Bell
New Life Home Improvement
Arlington, TX- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


When you present the list of items, I'd make it clear that you prefer
to have the work done yourself after the closing and get a discount
off the selling price to cover the items. You could work with the
seller to choose a couple companies to give quotes. You are better
off this way rather than having the seller fix stuff, because for them
the obvious thing to do is get it fixed as basicly and cheaply as
possible. For example, if it turns out the roof needs to be
replaced, I'd rather have $$ for a basic roof and then make my own
choice as to whether I want a more expensive architectural shingle,
etc. Same thing with things like a dishwasher. If the dishwasher
has problems, I'd rather get a $250 credit and deal with it on my own,
instead of having the seller spend $250 fixing a 10 year old one or
putting in another low end one.