If you find out that the home that you like still needs work after you’ve had the home inspection, you might wonder if you should still buy it and what kinds of repairs you should be looking to get. Doing some repairs is worth it on the right house, but figuring out who should be responsible for what repairs and how you should be prioritizing when a particular project gets done takes some planning. These are some tips that you can use to get some of the repairs done for you before you close on the house.
Prioritize the Repairs
Some of the repairs that you want will be things that need to be repaired right away, such as safety hazards and expensive items. Other things will be minor and cosmetic. Those things can wait. And still, other repairs will be somewhere in between. Negotiate with the seller to see if they will fix the expensive things, especially if they’re safety hazards.
Get Quotes for Repairs
Once you know what needs to be done to the house that you’re considering putting in an offer on, you need to have a pretty good idea of how much each of the repairs that you plan on getting done is going to cost. To get an accurate picture of how much it will cost, you should contact a contractor and have them put together an estimate. The contractor will be able to tell you how much each project will cost.
Decide If You Want Cash or for Them to Fix It for You
Before you begin to negotiate with the seller, you should also determine if you want the cash to have it fixed yourself or you want the seller to fix it for you. There are benefits and drawbacks to both scenarios, and which one is best for you will somewhat depend on your personal situation. For instance, if some of the repairs are things that you could do yourself, you might choose to take the cash so that you can upgrade the materials. But you might prefer the seller to do the repairs if you want to avoid the hassle of having contractors in your home after you’ve already moved in. On the other hand, the seller might also have a preference on how repairs are done.
Be Cordial About Your Requests
Attacking the seller is only going to offend them and make it more likely that they’ll back out selling to you. A much better approach is to be gracious about your requests and be willing to work with and compromise with them about the repairs. No one likes to feel pushed in a corner, and you’re much more likely to reach a decision that you’re both happy about if both you and the seller are reasonable from the start.
Whether you’re looking for renovated homes for sale in Lakeland or a home that needs a few repairs, having an idea of how you’ll approach the potentially sticky business of getting repairs done will make you more comfortable when it’s time to negotiate.