Have an inspection done

The buying process

Have an inspection done

When the seller has accepted your offer, if you negotiated to have an inspection or inspection contingency, you will have a chance to hire a professional home inspector to inspect the house and provide a detailed report.

The inspection period

The inspection period is negotiable, usually 7-10 days, though in a competitive offer situation, it’s best to have as short an inspection period as possible. It’s your chance to make sure that the home is purchase-worthy, and also to negotiate on anything that we want to ask the seller to fix, or to compensate you financially to take on and fix for yourself. If you’re not happy with the inspection, you can cancel the purchase agreement and get your earnest money back if you negotiated for a contingent inspection.

What to negotiate on

Every situation is different, but here are some guidelines that we generally use to negotiate:

Any health & safety issues are the most critical and easiest to negotiate on
We usually don’t recommend negotiating a ‘laundry list’ of minor items – pick your battles and get what you really want and need done
Remember that no home is perfect, even new ones!

When it comes to asking for repairs, ask yourself if this is a repair you are comfortable having the seller make and complete, while choosing their own vendors.

If you want to control the repair or choose the vendor, it may be wiser to ask for a seller contribution to your closing costs instead, so that you can complete the repairs when you take ownership of the house. By asking for a seller’s contribution, your cash to close amount is reduced by that much, and you have that money left ‘in your pocket’ to complete the repairs.

The buying process