Advice On Negotiating Repairs With Seller
THIS WILL BE MY FIRST HOME PURCHASE. THE SELLER HAS A REPAIR COUNTEROFFER.
I'm not sure how to proceed, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
About the house: It's in Tampa, a duplex. Unit A is about 100 years old and Unit B is almost completely new.
Pros:
-The duplex is in a very desirable neighborhood with home value appreciation year over year at about 50+%
-Rent is also in high demand within this area
-Cash flows well even with high interest rates and increasing property taxes
-Home is price below average cost per sq ft
-The house has been renovated and some parts of it has been remodeled
Cons:
-All issues are with Unit A, the 100 year old unit.
-Has no crawlspace (common for older properties) so we couldn't see the foundation
-Drywood termite/wood decaying fungi damage seen on all the windows/doors/parts of the beam on the exterior, parts of roof decking and rafters in the attic
-Old leaks/moisture damage seen in the ceilings and attic
-Parts of the roof has patch work
-Roof doesn't have any permits on record (don't know how old it is)
Seller's offer to me:
-Fumigation treatment for drywood termites (tenting the house)
-Replace and repair all damage wood throughout the house
-Replace the entire roof with a new permit
-Replace one window in every room (not all)
-Pay for a structural engineer to inspect the foundation
-Offer to get quotes for repairs and have a 15-20K budget to make all repairs, house is 500K.
-Will be open for us to extend our inspection period
The counteroffer sounds attractive since he's offering to pay for most of the repairs, even for an engineer to properly inspect the foundation. However, there's still hesitation from my side. What do you think? How would you proceed?
#4 All Forums Contributor
- Specialist
- Mendham, NJ
The good news is that's more than any seller any of us has seen offer in years.
The bad news is that there is a reason for that.
What is the hesitation if it looks like the seller is willing to do a lot to remedy?
Is your agent helping you?
@Jonathan Greene hesitation is trusting the seller to do the repairs properly. We're not there to monitor or do any quality assurance on his work. So this part is about how can we best protect ourselves in this case? If we asked for a credit, we don't yet have a solid team or even time to be there throughout the entirety of all the repairs, so we would still have to coordinate everything and rely on someone else to be our representative there. Not sure how to go about this.
#4 All Forums Contributor
- Specialist
- Mendham, NJ
@Diana Tran you request proof of all repairs done by licensed contractors for everything and your agent should be able to review as it goes if you are out of state. Where there is smoke there is fire though. These are substantial repairs.
Hi Diana,
The seller’s offer sounds quite generous and shows a lot of good faith, which isn't something you see every day. From my 20 years in real estate, I can tell you that getting such cooperation from a seller is quite rare. It’s totally normal to feel hesitant, especially with your first big property purchase, but having the seller cover major repairs and even bring in a structural engineer for a thorough check—that’s a lot of the big-ticket worries off your plate. Remember, no deal is perfect—worry when it seems like it is because there’s probably something not right with it. Make sure you use the extended inspection period wisely to double-check everything. No property is perfect, especially an older one, but with good management, most risks can be minimized upfront. If everything checks out and you feel good about the situation, this could be a solid investment given its location and rental demand. Just go in with your eyes open, and maybe have a chat with a real estate attorney to smooth out any wrinkles.
