Home Buying Negotiations Round Two: Repairs

cactus spines by marchenland on flickr A typical home buyer in Tucson goes through two rounds of negotiations with the Seller.  The first decides the price and terms, like how long of an inspection period, the closing date, and who will pay for certain fees.

Round two of negotiations is the fun part.  Once a buyer is done inspecting a home, or when their time runs out, the buyer gets to open negotiations anew and ask for repairs to be made to the house.

Actually, the buyer has a couple of choices at the end of their inspections:

  • They can walk away from the deal with a refund of their earnest money, at their sole discretion (as long as timelines are met).
  • They can decide to buy the house and proceed with the deal without any repairs
  • or they can ask the seller to make repairs to the house.

What kind of repairs can a buyer ask for?  Well, pretty much anything.  The only two no-nos are asking to reduce the purchase price or asking for money.  There’s a loophole for that though: you can ask a Seller to do a list of repairs OR to give you money towards your closing costs, but you can’t just ask for the money and not the repairs.  Okay?

Okay.  So the buyer fills out a form (fondly known as the BINSR, pronounced ben-zer), and asks for repairs.  What now?

Typically, the Seller has 5 days to respond, although that timeline could have been negotiated to a different number in the original contract.  Default is 5 days though.  The Seller has three options:

  • They can agree to do all the repairs, having them done in a “workmanlike manner“
  • They can say, heck no, I’m not doing any repairs,
  • They can come back with a counter-offer to the repair request.  Maybe the Seller will do 3 of 5 repair items, and give a $400 credit to have something else done yourself. 

Once the Seller responds, the Buyer has 5 days to decide if the Seller’s response is good enough for them.  If the Buyer is unhappy with the Seller’s response, they can cancel the contract, and walk away with their earnest money (typically).  If the Seller’s response is acceptable, then the deal moves forward toward closing.

By the way - the Seller has to have any agreed upon repairs completed 3 days prior to close of escrow.  Don’t procrastinate if you’ve got to get repairs done!  If you’re a Buyer, you better be in there at least 3 days prior to closing, checking to make sure the work was done properly.

(As always, the rules and timelines depend on your individual situation and contract.  What I’m describing here is typical, but if you’re under contract now to buy or sell a home here in Tucson, you should go ask your agent for more specific advice!)

Photo via Flickr by marchenland

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