Buying a Home in North Carolina

North Carolina is a due diligence State.  This means caveat emptor; buyer beware.  During the due diligence period you will have a home inspection.  During the home inspection your  inspector WILL find issues.  Even in new construction there will be items on the report, though not nearly as many as in an older home.  What to do now?

Repair Request

Once the report comes back your agent will go over all items of concern.  The rule of thumb is to ask for major items, the items that cause you grave concern.  Some buyers ask for more than they really want in hopes the seller will fix those as well.  This scenario works sometimes, but it is not a good idea to ask for silly repairs like a door not latching or a crack in the driveway in a home that’s 20 years old.  In general, reasonable repairs will be addressed IF you have a reasonable seller.  It could also depend on the current market.  During COVID and shortly after there was so little inventory on the market sellers were in the driver’s seat.  They didn’t have to make repairs because most buyers didn’t care, unless there were thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of work.  Even then sometimes buyers still bought because they laid out a huge amount of due diligence money, but that is a different blog post.

Are Repairs Required?

The Offer to Purchase and Contract states in paragraph 4(d) “Unless the parties agree otherwise, THE PROPERTY IS BEING SOLD IN IT’S CURRENT CONDITION”.

Sellers don’t want to make repairs, buyers want to ask for ALL repairs.  This is why negotiations are so important in real estate.  Sellers want to sell, buyers want to buy.  Buyers and sellers should negotiate knowing that they make not get everything they want, but in the end both parties reach a common goal.

Reach out to me with any questions or concerns you may have about real estate.