Gren wrote:

Oh boy. Just this past friday, my wife, our broker, an
indepedant inspector and I converged and met regarding a house

(details snipped)

purchase price for home.. 154k. my 'estimated' cost for
seller to repair these issues: at least 13k. (could be much
higher, I dunno)

need advice.

Talk with your broker about making the repair issue part of
your offer, there are several ways that can be accomplished.
You might need to pay an engineer and/or general contractor
for a firm estimate, but you'll need one. If your state has
laws requiring full seller disclosure of all known problems,
the sellers might be required by law to add these issues to
their statement if they haven't already done so. IOW, they
can't just cross their fingers and try to blow them past
other interested buyers. Your broker might need to gently
remind their broker about that :-)

Like any other deal, it all depends on how bad they want to
sell the place, and if they're willing to meet your demands.
That's why there are offers and counters. You can ask for
the moon if your broker will work with you and try to get
it, but the seller can always laugh at you and tell you to
go away.

--
No more big'uns for me, now I'm a 'Venture Capitalist'.
I've learned to totally appreciate 'Small Firms'.