What to do after a home inspection

Your next seven to ten days, in order

1. 1

   Day 1 — read the report and sort it

   Sort every finding into safety, structure and water, systems near end of life, and cosmetic. Do not draft a repair request yet. The only decision on day one is which items need a specialist to give you a real number.

2. 2

   Day 1 — book specialists the same day

   Structural engineer, licensed electrician, HVAC tech, sewer camera scan, chimney Level 2, or a mold or radon test if the report flagged conditions. Specialists are the bottleneck in the whole timeline; a structural engineer booked on day one might come on day four and report on day six. Booked on day three, they land after your deadline.

3. 3

   Day 2 — price the flagged items into ranges

   Get every safety, structure, water, and end-of-life item into an estimated range so you know the total scale. This is what tells you whether you are negotiating over $6,000 or reconsidering the purchase entirely.

4. 4

   Day 3 to 5 — get real quotes on the big items

   For anything above roughly one percent of the purchase price, a written contractor quote beats any estimate, including ours. A quote in hand also changes the negotiation, because you are no longer arguing about whether a number is plausible — you are showing the seller a document.

5. 5

   Day 5 to 7 — decide what you are actually asking for

   Choose one of four outcomes per item: seller repairs before closing, a credit at closing, a price reduction, or you absorb it. Credits are usually cleaner than repairs, because a seller who no longer owns the house has no incentive to hire well, and repairs done under deadline pressure are frequently the cheapest version available.

6. 6

   Day 6 to 8 — deliver the written request through your agent

   Written, specific, tied to the report page or the specialist's finding, and short. Attach the quotes. A request that names four items with documentation reads as reasonable; a request that names thirty reads as a renegotiation of the price and often triggers a flat refusal.

7. 7

   Before the deadline — respond, extend, or exercise the contingency

   If the seller counters, you accept, counter once, or walk. If you need more time — a specialist has not reported, a quote has not landed — request a written extension of the contingency before it expires, not after. An expired inspection contingency in most contracts means you have accepted the property as-is and your deposit is at risk if you leave.

8. 8

   After you are through — keep the report as the house's founding record

   The system ages, the deferred maintenance list, and the conditions the inspector told you to monitor are the starting record of a house you will own for years. Store them where you will find them, so that when the roof hits year twenty-two you know exactly when the clock started.