Plain English about Repair Contingencies When Buying or Selling a Home in the Frisco, Tx Area

Whenever your Realtor is preparing your contract, a contingency should always be included that states that the contract can be canceled if the house inspection brings to light any repairs that may make the buyer feel that they are too serious for him to go ahead with the purchase of their new home. If the buyer decided that he still wishes to go ahead, he has a choice of asking the seller to have all or some of the repairs fixed or to ask for a dollar amount to have the repairs made after closing.
One of our buyers decided last week to go this route on the home he had found, after listening to advice from the home inspector who gave the report for the clients future house. The inspector suggested that the seller might have a ‘handyman’ fix the repairs, but the quality of the work might be inferior. By choosing a contractor himself, Our client has peace of mind that the work has been done to a standard that he is happy with or he can actually do some of the work himself. We wrote and amendment that the buyer would like $XXXX in lieu of repairs to be paid at closing. The seller countered back that the exterior work was covered by the HOA, so we were given a letter from the HOA stating that the exterior work would be carried out by them. We settled on a lesser amount because of this and so both buyer and seller just initialed the changes to the $ amount on the amendment. It is worth remembering that most townhouses have HOA dues and that all exterior work is covered by these dues. You wouldn’t want to pay for that work out of your pocket if you are already covered by the HOA.
If you do choose to have the repairs carried out, have your inspector come back to do a re-check prior to closing. Please do not wait until the final walk-through. That gives you time to request that the work should be redone if you think it was not done correctly in the first place.
There is a great article that provides further information at about.com or head over to our Facebook Fan Page for more information about the Real Estate Market in Frisco, Tx.