Newsflash: Negotiating seller to repair after getting inspection report. Is the sellers counteroffer good or bad?

Hi! I’m a first time home buyer in Tampa. I’m under contract to purchase a duplex. One of the unit is about 100 years old and there are some big issues found:-Drywood termites eating along all the windows and parts of the door, seller tried to cover it up with caulk and new paint. It’s in very bad condition. The seller only installed two new windows out of 10 total. There are some minor damages on the outside of the house, the roof decking and rafters in the attic.-one of the roof has patchwork, there’s no record of any permits on the roof so we don’t actually know how old it is. It looks like it’s 8-10 years old. Worried about issues with getting insurance. Inspector also said it’s nearing its life expectancy. -clearly there’s moisture issues or old leaks scene in the attic and some of the ceiling in the bedroom or bathroom. That hints to why the roof has been patched.-inspector couldn’t get under the house because there’s no crawl space. So he had to take a guess on the condition of the foundation through other methods like cracks in the walls and unlevel flooring. So far, he said the house is very old so it’s common for the flooring to be uneven, but nothing was spongy or bouncy. No cracks in the wall.We asked the seller to repair everything. His counter offer is this:-he’ll tent the house and fumigate it to treat drywood termites. Mind you there’s also wood decaying fungi but the inspector didn’t say this is a big problem, the termites are.-He will NOT fix all the windows. He agreed to fixing one window per room.-Seller is refusing to replace the roof saying his inspector expects 7-10 more years left in that roof. It’s solid and he also received insurance quotes on it. My inspector said the complete opposite. -he will replace the damaged wood only on the rafter beams and trussers.Since I’m a new buyer, I don’t really know if his counter offer is attractive or not. All I know is that roof has previous issues with leaks and moisture, that’s why there is patchwork done, and no permits mean I might have issues down the line for getting insurance. I also don’t have any extra money to do big repairs like this. Also, he’s not replacing all the windows although it’s clearly damaged by termites is another part im concerned about.Any suggestions how I should go about this?

Read more at https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1cdh7sq/negotiating_seller_to_repair_after_getting/?utm_source=ifttt

Leave a comment