Home Inspection : Who fixes the problems ?

Before a real estate transaction is finalized, a home inspection almost always takes place. In most cases, the buyer is the one who pays for the inspection. Even though, as of late more and more sellers are paying for the inspection up front as an added benefit to move their home along. With all of that in mind, the main question on the mind of buyers and sellers is: who is responsible for fixing the problems that are found during a home inspection. If you are lucky, the inspection will show nothing wrong. But guess what? These cases are rare to say the least.

In most cases, the person who fixes the problems is determined by negotiations between the buyer and seller. For instance, the buyer may decide to ask the seller to fix everything that came back wrong on the home inspection. If they agree, they will take care of all this before the date of closing. But of course, the seller may want to negotiate as well. He may come back to the buyer and say that fixing some of the problems is fine, but all of them are not going to work. Generally speaking, this process is very similar to negotiating the selling price of the home.

Speaking of the selling price, this often times comes up during negotiations after the home inspection. If the seller is not willing to fix the problems, the buyer may ask for a lower price so that he can take on the repairs upon moving into the home. Obviously, this is not always a guarantee, and once again the seller will have something to say.

There are no standard rules for who is responsible for these repairs. Instead, a lot of it falls back on renegotiations. In some cases, the buyer may want to get the transaction over with and agree to buy the house as is. But on the other side of things, the buyer could play hard ball and ask for all the repairs to be completed before closing. Every real estate deal is affected in one way or the next by a home inspection. It is up to you to deal with this the cards that you are dealt.