​​Welcome back to another episode of the Boomtown podcast. I'm Cameron Walker, the broker and owner of Cameron Walker Realty. Together with me today is my fabulous co-host, Megan Hines. Hi, everybody. All right, today we're going to talk about one of those things that's really important to people when they're moving to the Huntsville area, and it causes a lot of confusion. So, what is it? It's buyer beware, home inspections, and the expectations for repairs. There's so much confusion around this topic, we wanted to do a deep dive. We've run into it recently with a lot of clients, both on the listing side and on the buying side. So, because Megan and I work both sides of the coin, we have a really good vantage point on this. Yeah. And the reason it's confusing is because it is literally objectively confusing. You can ask for anything, but they're only required to do certain things. Some of those are obvious, some of those are not. Yeah. So, if you're moving here from say a coastal area, a larger city, or many states—Colorado comes to mind—you have more buyer protections there. We're a "buyer beware" state. And what that means is there's very little in the way of seller disclosure laws, and the seller's feet are not held to the fire for repairs like they are in other areas. Like I always jokingly say, if you're buying a house in California, you do your home inspection, you can say you saw a pink dragon or purple spots, you can walk away and get your earnest money back. In Alabama, there could literally be a pink dragon or purple spots, and you're expected to go to closing. Yeah. And so we want to dig into what that means for individual buyers, what the documentation says, where you're protected, where you're not, and where some gray areas are. Yeah. And one of the big things is that you're not protected against anything cosmetic. So, if you are looking, you need to look at your home, physically look at it yourself, before you go under contract. If you have something like a broken tile, paint that you don't like, or things that are ugly but do not affect the use of the system, then you can't really ask. I mean, you can ask for them, but they're not required to do it, and they could say this is a breach of contract if you won't buy it with that thing there. Yeah. So, areas where you're protected are structural. So, think your foundation, load-bearing walls, roof trusses, health and safety, mold, asbestos, radon (being over the EPA limits), termites—you're protected from termites in our contracts—things like the major electrical and major systems. So, your plumbing, your electrical, your HVAC; these are things, either between the contract or the inspection addendum that you sign, you're protected under those umbrellas. And then there's this kind of vague terminology which states that anything that substantially interferes with the intended use of the property. And that is vague, right? Very. So that's why this can be very confusing, and there can be a little bit of back and forth about it. So, if something is made to not look good or it has some minor problem but it still functions, yeah. And a good example of this is if you... this is why we always ask how old the air conditioner is, because if you had an 80-year-old air conditioner—which doesn't exist, but it would be very old—even if it was 80 years old, if it was working, they'd say this is functioning. It's intended use is... and maybe it doesn't work as well as something newer, but it's working as well as it did the day that it was put in. And that's just how they worked back then. Yeah. So you don't get a new one. Yeah. Tolerances, thresholds, and building code are really important to understand. So your home inspector, they're as much a "CYA" [Cover Your Assets] for themselves as they are for you. So they're going to put in their report on a 15-year-old HVAC that it's nearing the end of its expected useful life. Now, it might die the next day, and it might make it 10 more years. But if you're already under contract on that house, that's the HVAC it came with. If it's working and it's doing the temperature differential—and that's actually how they determine it; they look and say, "Okay, is this heating and cooling to the extent within proper thresholds?" And if not, that's a defect on the home inspection report and something we can push for. Now, that is a repair or replace thing. So, so long as they get it up to working order, then that's considered a repair, and that is covered under the contract from the seller's side because they're responsible for delivering a home with that fully functioning HVAC, not a new one. So, what I always tell people is if the age of the HVAC being 10 or 15 years old is a problem for you, then we need to take that into account when we make our offer. That's not something you can rely on in the home inspection and request for repairs. So easy-peasy. We can take care of it. You're still protected, but we're going to do it on the front end rather than on the back end and gamble. Yeah. And the home inspection and the request for repairs are an opportunity to negotiate if you find things, but you should never go into this thinking, "Oh, this is my price now, and what's my price going to be after this?" Because that won't work out for you. Yeah. And it really depends. So you have... where's the balance of strength? If this home was on the market for four months and you're the only offer, you have a lot more strength in negotiations than a house that got seven offers on the first weekend, because they'll tell you to go kick rocks and they'll take the next offer, right? But you bring up a funny point about asking for money off. In many cases, our buyers, through negotiations, do get an additional discount off the home, credit towards closing costs, what have you, because they want to do the work themselves. But that is not how the contract is written. The contract is written so that we give them the opportunity to repair it and get it into working order. So we can say, "in lieu of repairs, this," but we can't demand that. That's not how the contract's written and not protected that way. And so I have to make that crystal clear for people: there is a trade-off. And I'll give a prime example of a home that actually went to closing today. Throughout the inspection period, we found out that some of the flooring was peel-and-stick. The sellers were in the midst of a move, they had boxes everywhere, we couldn't see the floor clearly in one room, and it was peel-and-stick instead of LVP [Luxury Vinyl Plank]. And so they had advertised the home as LVP. We get the home inspection, we confirmed what the flooring is, we went back to them and said, "Hey, this is what it's going to cost us to pull that up, prep the floor, put down new LVP to match that which is in the other rooms. We want a credit for that because we're two weeks out from closing. We know you're not going to get the flooring done." Same home inspection report, turns out there's a lot of mineral deposit in the water heater. When they filled up the bathtub, it was just like a dirty, murky brown color and the water wasn't getting to temp and it took 30 minutes to fill the bathtub. Yeah. All of these things indicate that the water heater is not working and they did replace that as part of our request for repairs. So, in that case, we got a repair and a credit towards closing. Yeah. My point was more that if you're not comfortable with the price that you're buying the house for, don't assume that you're going to get a better deal after the home inspection. And it's true, you can choose either way. But it really depends on how these people are willing to negotiate with you, what the market is doing at that time, and the things that you can ask for are pretty specific. You know, what's the good news? How are they protected? Yeah. And so again, in the contract, you're protected for structural, health, and safety and some of these other elements. You can write in certain protections. So I've had people that got a smokin' deal on a house, but the seller wanted to sell "as-is." So we wrote in minimum protections, like: "If it's a major structural element, then we can either ask the seller for further credit to repair or walk away. If it's a health or safety concern, or if there's a certain dollar limit of repair necessary, we could walk away," right? So again, it's all on the front end. Another way you can protect yourself is you can have the inspections done before you purchase. There's a little bit of a gamble there, in that the home's still on the market. You can pay for inspections for a home that somebody else buys while you're waiting on those inspections, especially if it's a hot home. Yeah, that's a bit of a gamble. Absolutely right. And another way, and this is one I've preached for years, is new construction, because the builders are held to a different tolerance. Everything in the home's brand new and you have, in many cases, the warranties. Yeah. That new construction is a completely different beast, because when you do the home inspection with new construction, you just basically hand it to them and they fix the whole thing. But when we get a home inspection from a resale home, we have to go through that, figure out what we're going to ask for, and then we'll basically, when I'm talking to my clients, I'll be like, "These are the things we're going to ask for. These are the things they have to do. These are the things they might do." Yeah. So, the process is important, right? So, when we write a contract, there's a radio button that we check that does or does not require a home inspection. I can't remember the last time I wrote one that said "does not." It's been years and years since I've seen "does not" get a home inspection. Yeah. So, always get a home inspection. And that was in the case of like investors buying certain types of properties. I don't think I've ever had a homeowner not get an inspection. I don't care. So, we marked that it does. Then we have a separate inspection addendum that lays out some of the structural elements that are protected in this. And it also sets a timeline for how many business days we have to conduct all of your inspections. And when I say all of your inspections, right, we have to think about that too: home inspection, usually a radon test, termite, and then you could have specific things inspected. I have clients under contract right now. We've done a foundation inspection, we've done HVAC, we've done plumbing, we've done the home inspection, we had a separate roof inspector, and of course, like termite and radon as well. So, they're very thorough. This is going to be the most well-inspected home ever. This is atypical, but they had to get all that done within those 10 working days. And then from there, we have three days from the last inspection to submit our request for repairs. And then the seller has two days to respond. There's a couple of opportunities for back and forth there. And if we can't meet up, that's when the buyer can request to exit the contract. But even that's not a given. Yeah. And the timeline's extremely important on these, because basically when you submit, if they don't respond, it's considered accepting. Yeah. So, make sure that if you're working in this state on any of these, you are paying very close attention to your timeline. And I mean, I'm a good agent, but I would never rely on someone else to be in charge of that. I'd be like, "What is the timeline?" Because I would want to know that I wasn't... because I'm the one on the hook for it if it goes wrong. Yeah. Well, I like to say we have three layers of defense. There's always the client, who ultimately is most important because it's your money, right? And you need to be satisfied with everything and you need to know your dates. We, as the agent, are also going to keep track of that. And then nobody knows our army that's behind us named Elena. So, Elena doesn't like to come on video, but if you work with us, you will eventually meet Elena, at least digitally or over text. And Elena is like our absolute rock-solid admin. She shows homes, she sells homes, and then she works as our transaction coordinator to keep you and me straight, keep clients in the loop. As soon as you go under contract, you're on a group text with her. And she is dynamite as an admin. So, she's also going to make sure... she's going to schedule those appointments for you. She's going to make sure we're well within our tolerances. And she's constantly sending me text messages: "Hey, we're one day out from this. Hey, three days for this," right? Same thing. And it's a group text going to the clients as well. So, you're never, you know, uninformed of what your dates are. While it is ultimately, according to the contract, on the buyer to know these things, we make sure we have redundancy in our systems. I mean, I know we do. I'm just... if I were the consumer, I'd be neurotic about this because I just... those dates, I'm neurotic about it as your agent, but you might not be working with me. So, just be aware of your dates, right? Yeah, that is something. Put them on your calendar, and you're right, put them on your calendar. It might help you out. Yeah. A nuance here too that I hadn't really thought about: If you're working with another agent, they may not inform you—and likely won't, because I run into this frequently—there are only a small handful of holidays that our local Realtor association accepts as non-working days. And so they are your bigger holidays: your Fourth of July, your Christmas. But some other holidays like President's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Indigenous Peoples' or Columbus Day—whichever side of that coin you fall on—those things are not considered holidays when we're talking about working days in a contract. So, don't bank on getting that extra day in those holiday weeks. You really need to have an understanding of what your drop-dead dates are. And of course, always try and be in advance of those. Yeah. And one thing... so a lot of people... you were talking about your clients who got every inspection. A lot of people will get a general home inspection, and this is how I recommend it actually: is you get a general home inspection, and if you see any issues, then you follow up with a more specific home inspection. That way, you're not spending money on multiple home inspections that you might not need. So, that would mean that you would want to get that as soon as possible so that you have the time to do the follow-up inspections. Absolutely. And I want to give a few things here, too, that are important. So, the earlier you do the inspection, that's awesome. I agree, because it does give you that additional time if there's a known issue or potential issue. So, I had clients—the ones that got all the different inspections—their first inspection was a day after we went under contract and it was a plumbing inspection, because parts of that neighborhood are known to have defective PEX plumbing, which requires the entire house to be replumbed. We wanted to make sure on the front end we weren't dealing with that or that the seller was going to pay for the replumb, right? And so it turned out that was a non-issue. So we carried on with the rest of our inspections, but we did triage these and we did the most important up front. That is atypical. Usually, it's the home inspection and then from there, the time of year is really important. This time of year, in the spring, home inspectors are more backed up. Holidays, they're also off more. So, those times of year, we really need to be out in front of things and get them scheduled immediately after we go under contract. And in some cases, I've reached out to the inspectors I recommend before we even go under contract and say, "Hey, I've got to write in this inspection date. We've got a competitive offer here. Something we could do is offer a shorter term. You know, what is your availability?" And that takes me into the next thing, which is you are always welcome to pick your own licensed home inspector, but we work with very thorough inspectors that we trust. I cannot tell you the amount of people that picked their own inspector and we wound up having a relative nightmare. Case in point, the clients that have had all these inspections: they had an inspector come out and said the entire HVAC needed to be replaced, when actually it's one part. But that happened to my client, and he called me completely freaking out after he had purchased a house. We sent the person that we work with, who is a saint, and it was one part and he fixed it on the spot. It was like... I don't even think he charged. He was like, "It's just $10 for me coming out here," or something. It was ridiculous. My clients were told that they had to do a dye test to find a leak in the HVAC system and it would take at least a month. We called our guy and he goes, "No, when you do that test, it's 72 hours." But he came out, he didn't even have to do that test. He had another device that could detect the leak by sound. And so he was able to find it. It was the coils; that's about a $2,500 replacement as opposed to the $7,500 full unit replacement the other guy was suggesting. In the heat of the summer, how are you supposed to wait a month to find out what's wrong with your AC? Right. And then, in conversation with my clients, it turns out the husband jumped the gun and booked his own person instead of using ours. So his wife was chastising me jokingly. But that's the stuff, right? You never know if you have a charlatan. I have some close personal friends; I'm selling their house, and this morning I came in a bit agitated. The other agent sent out an inspector to look at the roof and literally the guy showed up for a sales call on my clients, as if they're buying a roof. There's nothing wrong with that roof. It's not that old. It's just that the buyers on that side want a new roof. And that's not what we're going to provide. And there's a difference between a sales call and an inspection. So depending on what side of this coin you fall on, it feels different too. But we're not going to cave to that request because they sent out a sales guy. That's not an inspection. His card says "sales." He showed up for a sales appointment. And that's what... the message I sent the other agent was like, "Hey, you sent somebody out for a sales call instead of an inspection." And now they're backpedaling, but it's like, it's too late. We're not going to cave to a sales call. And I think that, big picture here, something you need to consider is you're not... when you go under contract, look at the house really closely. You're buying a house in the condition that it's in. So if you're buying a 50-year-old house, you're buying a 50-year-old house, and there's going to be things with a 50-year-old house, and you're not going to be able to get all of those things remedied by the home inspection and request-for-repair process. You're going to be able to get major things—things that are health and safety, or things that keep you from using that house for its intended use, keep you from living there. But if there's things you don't like, they probably won't get fixed. And there are going to be things you don't like in a house that old. Yeah. So, a house with a 25-year-old roof and a 15-year-old HVAC, right? They came with that. You made an offer on that house knowing good and well that's what it was, because we asked up front, right? Yeah. If that HVAC is working the way it's supposed to and it's heating and cooling air within its tolerances and it doesn't have any other defects, the roof's not leaking, doesn't have any broken patches or missing shingles, right? Those are... don't gamble on being able to request those to be fully replaced, or credit for them, or a discount on the home two weeks later when you do the home inspection. You bought the house with those. That's what they come with. And it really confuses people because, again, you're in Colorado, you're in California, you're on one of the other coastal areas, and you can get those replaced as part of it or a discount later. So here, we need to do that due diligence on the front end to make sure you actually do get what you expect, you do get the right deal on the house. Yeah. And so, if you are looking at a house in a neighborhood and it is priced the same as all the other houses and all those other houses have new roofs and new air conditioners and your house is very similar to those, but it doesn't... it's overpriced. Yes, it is. And so you need to address that on the front end with your offer. Absolutely right. Because the last thing you want to do is go to closing overpriced with old equipment, because you're not going to be able to fix the fact that you went under contract on an overpriced house with the home inspection. Yeah. So, if I was going to kind of lay out the timeline of events, right? First thing is, when we look online and we're looking at these homes on the back end, a lot of times there's notes in the agent notes section of the MLS that are not publicly facing. And of course, a lot of times if they do have a new roof or new HVAC, they're very proud of it; they market that, right? Yeah. Second thing we're going to look at is walking through the home. When we walk through, we're going to have our eyes and ears open. See what we can see. We're not home inspectors. I'm not going to pretend to be one here on this podcast, but I do have eyes and ears. I am looking out for certain signs throughout the house to see if there's damage or recent repairs. Third is in the contract: How do we protect ourselves in the contract? Make sure we use an inspection addendum. Fourth is going to be: Make sure we hire reputable inspectors, get them out sooner rather than later. And then fifth is that request for repairs. What do we put in there and what do we demand and how do we support that demand? Right? We want to make sure we have the right inspection to go with the request for repairs we're submitting. So if we have two or three inspections and they reveal different pieces of information, we'd submit all of them. But if there's only one or two defects and they're noted on one report, we're not going to hand over the other reports because sometimes there can be contradictory information. Yeah. And the other thing that you have to watch out for is you may have to get more inspections. So you need to budget for that in case it happens, because you don't want to be told that there's an issue and then not have the money to explore it. And I mean, I've received requests for repairs that have asked me to "find out about a problem." And that is not the job of the seller's agent. So if you are like, "This says... maybe," you need to be specific. Yes. Because otherwise it... you might have pushback where it won't get fixed, it won't get remedied. They'll say, "Your inspection period has passed and you don't have enough information to ask for this." Yep. You want to get everything on one request for repairs. So usually, the last thing we're hanging on is the radon test. And I always have to, like, tell people, like, "Rein back." Yeah. We're waiting on the radon test before we submit, because the last thing I want you to have is high radon, submitted the request for repairs, right? Yeah. And that's the other thing: we want to ask for licensed professionals when it's important. If it's plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, right? We want a licensed professional to do the work, and that's how we verify it was done: by seeing that paid invoice for the work that was completed. Yes. And you know, there's some back and forth with that occasionally. Sometimes they'll be like, "You know, we can do this." There's stuff that people can do, but you can go check... you know, basically our inspectors can do a reinspect. Yep. It usually costs less. So you would... you would if they're going to be having their people and not a licensed person do it, say, "Okay, we're just going to do a reinspection." Right. That way you're safe. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I think we covered the topic thoroughly. So hopefully this was informative to people looking to move here. Puts a little bit of your mind at ease about buyer beware, but also puts you on your toes about how to protect yourself so that buyer beware doesn't become a problem. Yeah. The basic thing is you can't just be like, "It's cool. I'll buy it." You have to check a little more. Let's not be cavalier. All right. Thanks, guys, for watching. Bye. Thanks for watching or listening. You can always catch us on audio wherever you get your podcasts, be it [link removed], [link removed], or you can watch our video on [link removed]. We really appreciate you guys being here.