Is it unreasonable to have a Contractor walk through before contract to determine damage by unlicensed workers owner hired?
Is it unreasonable to have a contractor walk through a property before going into contract if the inspector found significant damage done by the previous owner in doing upgrades – example, a 6 inch section of the joist removed to accomodate a PVC pipe installed in the upstairs bathroom? The sellers broker thinks he is…
Is it unreasonable to have a contractor walk through a property before going into contract if the inspector found significant damage done by the previous owner in doing upgrades – example, a 6 inch section of the joist removed to accomodate a PVC pipe installed in the upstairs bathroom?
The sellers broker thinks he is doing us a favor by allowing a 30 – 45 minute visit with a licensed contractor and wants a non-refundable deposit to accomodate such request. I don’t think this is unreasonable as a buyer and we told the contractor we would request two estimates, one for the damage done by the sellers “contractor” if you even call him that, and one for for the cosmetic upgrages we would like done – to clarify, we asked for the estimate to repair the damage asap to determine a new lower offer from the original accepted offer and a seperate estimate within two weeks as this would not impact the seller. Mind you this property has been on the market for 10, going on 11 months.
Who is the a$$hole here – me or the sellers agent? Thanks all.
If all you are looking at is $10k, and you feel reasonably comfortable that your exposure isn’t substantially higher, then if they won’t let you walk through with a contractor, take the $10k off your offer. The reason to walk through is if you think there was stuff the engineer couldn’t see because it was concealed. But if that’s the case, contractor may not see it.
One work of caution, if the $10k figure came from the inspector and not a contraqctor, it isn’t that reliable. A good inspector will see what there is to be seen, but isn’t necessarily an expert on the cost of repair. So that may be the reason you want a contractor in, to see what the inspector saw and put his/her own price on it. ANd yeah, do it with a contractor, not an architect.
If your concern is that what the inspector saw bodes ill for what else may be wrong that isn’t seen, you are better off just lowering your bid accordingly. It will be up to you to decide how much of the risk of increased cost to take on or when you are just willing to walk away. The big question is whether a $10k or $15k reduction in your bid will do it or whether there’s six figures worth of problems lurking that the seller has hid. Discuss your concerns with the inspector and see whether there is a reason to be cocnerned about the magnitude of the risk.
But everyone above is right. Don’t pay the broker. What you are asking for is not a privilege. You are doing due diligence and if the broker won’t accommodate you, it should raise a red flag.
We walked through our house several times before we went into contract: first with our inspector, then with the termite inspector, and finally with an architect who gave us an estimate of how much it would cost to fix. Even though the seller’s agent grumbled about the extra time she had to spend there, and kept reminding us that the house was being sold “as is”, she certainly did not have the nerve to request a nonrefundable deposit as a condition for the walkthroughs.
Crooklyn is such an interesting place to buy real estate–it’s still like the wild west. Unlike EVERY OTHER MARKET IN THE COUNTRY, realtors here don’t use the MLS, don’t co-broke with buyer brokers, and make you feel weird for wanting to use a home inspector. You would be out of your MIND to buy a 100-plus year-old house without having it looked over. Time limit? DEPOSIT?! Unbelievable.
It’s really amazing that nobody from REBNY can emerge as an effective leader to strong-arm these real-estate mobsters into acting ethically and professionally. One thing that would help would be for buyers and sellers to refuse to use agencies that won’t join REBNY and conform to its standards.
Do please post again, OP, after you poke through this house, and let us in on what you find. For my money, a 4-story brownstone deserves at least 3 or 4 hours of poking, especially in the basement, in the cockloft, and on the roof. Look at the electrical, look for leaks/moisture in basement, look carefully all ceilings for evidence of leaks.
And this is not to be an obnoxious person who uses inspection findings to renegotiate–here is not the place to nitpick. But if you find things that are serious–and seriously, pick your battles and only make demands on big things–go get ’em.
OP here.
Thank you for your feedback.
We had our own inspector who found all of the problems with the work that was done and based on these findings, we wanted our contractor to come in and come up with an estimate to repair the damage the owner had done in hiring unskilled labor trying to save a buck or two. The home luckily is not structurally unsafe but there is about 10k (a guess until I receive my estimate) of damage to un-do.
I should have mentioned that the property has been on the market so long because the owner had it listed with another company who had it way overpriced so they just recently switched to the broker who told me the owner was doing me a favor who lowered the price to where it should be. We, however, are not being represented by a broker in this process.
We love the house, the location which is why we want to continue. We made an offer on the spot at the open house and have only been back for the inspection and the walk through with the contractor and we feel like we are being bullied.
Thanks guys – I do feel a little better. I was made to feel like I was doing something unethical in asking for this.
11 months on the market? don’t concede a godd*mn thing.
there is blood in the water. you are the shark.
go in with your contractor and deduct every single thing you find.
they will capitulate.
in the words of George Costanza, “you have hand”. use it.
How much do you want the house? Don’t run. Sort of walk slowly. If they really want to sell and it’s been sitting so long, they’ll come after you. In the meantime, keep looking. Either something better will come up or not. Stick to your guns. At least you know what you’re getting. I’ve never purchased a home where there WASN’T something horribly wrong, but we’ve been lucky enough to learn how to fix things ourselves over the years. Ah, life…it’s all a learning experience.
Start the process anew with somebody else and hire your own home inspecrtor who is licensed and not affiliated with your real estate broker or lawyer or seller.
You have to be on neutral ground in order to avoid abuse.
There end of referrals wil say all is well because they don’t want you to walk away and they all lose their money.
Half the ads in the times suggest you come to an open house with your architect. Do not pay for another look at the house. Run. I know it takes a long time to find the right house, but run. This won’t be the one that got away. It’ll be the bullet you dodged.
I wish we had insisted on this when we bought our home. Once renovation started, the contractor found many things that had to be redone. The kicker was three floor beams that had been cut to accomodate a pipe in master bath. This damaged the floor, leading to mold in the shower and a total gut of the bathroom that we never wanted to change in the first place. Extra cost to us was over 30 grand. If you’ve already found problems with current owner’s work, they may be hiding something, and plan on some unexpected problems once you move in!