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However, many years ago my husband and I found a wonderful house in Smithtown in a great neighborhood - would have been a step up for us.
Had Tauscher engineer do the inspection before signing on the dotted line. Best move we could have made. He found:
Very extensive termite damage underneath front door entry where if the very expensive repair was done correctly by the owners the house would have had to be jacked up from underneath to repair rotted, eaten beams (I didn't think the owner would have repaired it correctly - probably just do a cheap way out that didn't actually do a decent repair)
More termite damage in basement
House lacked sufficient heat - needed severe additions of baseboard heating; dead giveaway for that was the wood stove in the family room. Of course people think they're charming, but to me they say "we don't have enough heat in the house and this is our way of compensating."
Much dry rot in attic - again would take extensive repairs for that
Those were some of the bigger issues - can't remember the rest, but it was quite a long list
The point is that even though the report cost $ and we didn't buy the house, we were much better off not going through with it even though at the time it was a disappointment.
Hold off signing anything until you get in an inspector - and if by some chance the house is sold in the next 48 hours, chalk it up to fate; you'll find something better anyway.
To TomMoser the realtor - i got your point that this will save a lot of time for the laywer and seller just in case it won't move forward. But what i'm worried about is if i do the inspection and the day after, they will say that someone matched or beat my offer - i will end up going away with no deal and payed home inspection for nothing.
Unfortunately, I have seen that happen. Not much today. Much more often in the "hot" market of a few years ago. A couple of times I saw the seller reimburse for the inspection (although they are not required to do so). That's why it's important, once an offer is accepted, to move forward as fast as possible. Until you are in contract, anything can happen.
Unfortunately, I have seen that happen. Not much today. Much more often in the "hot" market of a few years ago. A couple of times I saw the seller reimburse for the inspection (although they are not required to do so). That's why it's important, once an offer is accepted, to move forward as fast as possible. Until you are in contract, anything can happen.
What can happen without the inspection first is that you get beat, scammed or bilked out of a lot of money.
There may even be some things illegal that you may need to pay a fortune to change and/or even get fines because of.
If the seller can't wait for you to do an inspection, you need to find another house. I would.
Desperation or being pressured to "hurry up and buy"
can get you in a lot of trouble and cause regret.
You may want to ask your broker to ask the sellers broker if any other offers had been made on the home recently. It is my guess based on the current market that there will not be any offers in the next 1-2 days (which is the timeframe you can get the inspection done). I had one done within 8 hours of when I called!! If you need someone good let me know and Ill give you his info.
Anything i can do? I got a verbal agreement from the seller on my offer. I proceeded to get the house inspected within 48 hours of the agreement. After a passed inspection, their lawyers took over a week to come up with a contract. Meanwhile a higher offer came in. I matched the offer, but since the other buyer was putting more % down, they went with the other buyer. Now i'm out $500 bucks on the inspection.Small claims court? Do i have any legal right to getting my money back on the inspection?
Last edited by Mistatrunks; 09-24-2009 at 01:59 PM..
Reason: spelling
Do the inspection yesterday !
What I mean is go do it ASAP. Do not worry too much abt the 400 bucks on the inspection. What kind of inspection clause did you mean that you are signing ? Depending on what you find during the inspection the signing of the contract can take upto a month after the inspection.
And the contract going back and forth between your attorneys is not a fun thing. Only scenario I can think that will work here is if you put a clause saying if after inspection the sellers are not ready to fix the things that I want them to fix, then I can back out of the contract. But then good luck getting the sellers to sign that untouched, they will protect themselves also by saying if the buyer is asking to fix something that we are not ready to fix then we can back out of the contract.... anyways....
Inspection can be done within hours and a good inspector should give you a general idea about the major issues right away, so that you can then discuss it with the sellers and then go ahead with the contract if you have to.
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