re: Buying a House. Inspection shows costly repairs. Concession / Price reduction strategy?

I would get the numbers together for repair of roof and foundation. Then ask for concessions accordingly. They may say they've already factored these into the asking price.

The fact it is a buyer's market should work to your advantage.

Do you have a realtor? What is he/she saying or advising?

The two realtors will try to negotiate a mid point on concessions most likely.

The tougher you play it with your realtor, the tougher she will be with seller's realtor.

What's so funny about those concession / reduction figures?

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Most loan prorams cap concession amount at 3% of sales price.

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I already spoke with my loan officer. They can do 6%.

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They aren't. They are going to continue higher.

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Where are you hearing that rates will continue to increase, and for how long? You are entitled to your opinion of course, but it'd be nice if you'd share your source if this is anything other than your own intuition. I've read several articles that show expectations are that rate increases will likely pause soon (depending on inflation #'s this fall), and we may start seeing cuts sometime in 2024. I've seen zero articles that suggest that rate hikes will continue for much longer. My financial advisor for investments also shares this outlook.

WSJ: Central bank is likely to pause rate increases in September, then take a harder look at whether more are needed

Reuters: Fed to leave rates unchanged on Sept. 20; cut unlikely before Q2 2024: Reuters poll

Fortune: Fed will start cutting interest rates in 2024 now that the ‘tightening cycle has run its course,’ economists say

Must be doing an FHA loan then if getting 6%

Shocked the seller would take an FHA loan on a 125 year old home. Virtually zero chance that would go FHA.

Then there’s reality. A seller will axe that upon request and I wouldn’t blame them. Might be best to find a more turn key property.

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Must be doing an FHA loan then if getting 6%

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Nope. I’m putting down a decent down payment.

Another thing to note. Remembering your realtor works for you as well as himself/herself.

Of course they will try to steer you to the most likely outcome of you buying that house even if they are a friend/family friend, etc. because thats aboubt 10-15K that they pocket to feed their family.

Good luck let us know what happens but I would not buy the house after reading all that I did

I would trust the foundation repairman. Who cares what 1 engineer thinks, it's not a bridge.

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Pier and beam with basement


All the windows are sticking. 1 is cracked. I think the doors are ok. It's unclear if the windows are sticking because of the house settling or because they painted all the window sills and frames and the paint dried between the sill and the window.

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Don't walk away, RUN away.

You can eat up six figures getting a warrantied foundation repair.n and you'll still need a roof.

A 125 year-old house is trying to fall apart.

You don't want to have to fight that for the next 20-30 years.

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Is it in a historic district? If so, you need to find out what society governs it and figure out how difficult it may be to get approval for making structural changes to the house.

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I checked and it isn't thankfully.

The structural engineer found that the house has no major foundation issues and only needs some regular maintenance to prevent future issues. Maybe about $6-7K worth of work. The home inspector may have jumped the gun a tad based on the sloped floor. There's about a 3" difference from one end of the house to the other, so not too bad. We will likely just leave that be. Also, we confirmed that the windows would not open because of the previous paint job done. They are all functional and open fine.

With that in mind, it looks like we are probably going to move forward. Will ask that the seller replace the roof and will ask for concessions and price reduction for everything else.

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Also spending 10k in buydown cost to get that rate to 5.875% is not a good use of that money. You will refinance in the next 3years and that is just wasted money at that point.

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I think I agree with you here. I expect to refinance in a few years so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to take more concessions to get a higher rate, than to just ask for a price reduction. I plan to ask for them to cover my closing cost and the rest in price reduction.

I know some may think I'm making a mistake. That's possible of course. I'll just say that there are other factors that I haven't disclosed for personal reasons that play into the overall risk of the deal. I'm still nervous as hell though, because this is all new territory for me.

Again, thank you all for your comments, advice, warnings, etc!