41-item report on a triplex, I asked for 24k, seller came back with 8k

How did the 24k split across the four items? Without that number I can't tell whether the seller's 8k is insulting or reasonable. Post the breakdown.

1,150 for a triplex, is that per unit or is the whole building one report? Trying to understand how these get priced.

Call your insurance agent today about the knob and tube, before you do anything else with the negotiation. Some carriers won't write a policy with any active knob and tube, some will with a surcharge, some don't care if it's confirmed not in use, and it varies by carrier and by state. Get the answer in writing. If you can't insure it you can't finance it, and then the 8k versus 24k conversation is moot. Your lender may also condition on the electrical once the report is in the file, which depends on the loan program, so confirm that with your lender in writing too.

275 for the sewer scope is the part I'm writing down. Six months of reading and I'd never once seen anyone list it as a separate line item.

Has the agent said anything about backup offers? 22 years of ownership and no mortgage means the seller can sit. That changes what a walk threat is worth.

Knob and tube in the occupied unit is your real problem and not because of the negotiation. On the management side, that's the circuit where the tenant runs a space heater in February. If the rewire is 4 to 6k for one unit, you're doing it whether or not the seller pays, and you'll want the unit empty or mostly empty for it. Budget the turn cost, not just the electrician.

On the maintenance walk question, that's the thing I've been trying to build a version of. What did he say when you asked what it costs? The whole idea only works if the owner sees a report that changes what they spend, otherwise it's a very expensive walk around the building.

@lantern six units annually is one working day for an inspector, maybe a day and a half with write ups. He's not going to give you purchase-inspection pricing per unit but he's also not doing it for 50 bucks a door. I'd expect somewhere around 150 to 225 per unit with a short report, and that's the deal being worth it to him because it's scheduled work in a slow month. Five years running a service business and the standing annual jobs are the ones that pay the insurance.

I'd disagree with @thatch a little. Discounted recurring work gets you a discounted walk. If you want a real annual condition report on six units, pay something close to the real rate and tell him you want the roofs and the water heaters photographed with dates. The version where you negotiate him down to a rounding error is the version where he texts you "all looks fine" from the parking lot.

Your 24k, working backward from what I'd actually pay a sub in a small city: sewer lateral spot repair 4 to 7k if it's a dig, more like 9 to 12k if they line the full run. Roof on a triplex depends on footprint, maybe 14 to 22k, and you don't need it this year. Two furnace replacements 4 to 5k each installed. Knob and tube in one bedroom and closet, 3 to 6k if the walls cooperate. So 24k was low if you were counting the roof and high if you weren't. That's why nobody could evaluate your ask, including you.

You can walk. There's another triplex. I know that isn't the answer you want with five days left.

Does it matter to the lender whether you take 8k as a seller credit versus a price reduction? I'm studying this and the answer I got was that credits get capped depending on the loan program and the appraised value drives the rest. Worth asking your lender before you pick which one you're arguing about.

Who owns the lateral out to the main in that city? In some places the owner is responsible all the way to the sewer main, in others responsibility stops at the property line or the curb, and it's a local ordinance question. If 40 feet out is past the line you may be arguing over somebody else's pipe.

41 items would have me running. How many of those are actually safety and how many are the inspector writing down every missing outlet cover so the report looks thorough?

Run the numbers instead of the feelings. Gross rents 3,575 a month, 42,900 a year. At 585k you're paying 13.6x gross. The gap between 8k and 24k is 16k, which is 2.7% of price. If you close at 585 minus 8 and then spend 30k over three years on roof and furnaces and electrical, your real basis is 607k, or 14.1x gross. Does the deal still work at 14.1x in your market? If yes, the 16k is a negotiation you can lose. If no, the 16k wasn't the problem.

@ledger that's the question I'd want answered too. Keystone, are you buying this for the cash flow at today's rents or because you think the rents are 1,400 after you fix the units? Because those two answers argue for opposite things here.

Sorry, what is a sewer scope? Is that something a normal inspection includes or do you have to ask?

Question I'd have been too embarrassed to ask in person: can you have the inspector come back after the seller does repairs, and does that cost the full fee again? I never see anyone mention who verifies the work actually got done.

Six units in and here's what I've learned about roofs. The 19 year roof is not a negotiation item, it's a date on your calendar. I've stopped asking for roof credits and started asking myself whether I have the 18k in three years. Twice I didn't, and both times the roof did not care.

Get the two bids. Two days is enough for a plumber and a roofer if you call at 7am and offer to meet them there. Everything else in this thread is guessing at numbers you can have by Thursday.

Then split the list into two piles and stop treating it as one ask. Pile one is what makes the building unsafe or uninsurable right now: knob and tube in an occupied unit, the rusted flue collar, the missing handrail, the GFCIs. That's real money you have to spend before or right after closing, and it's the pile the seller has the weakest answer to, because it's not wear, it's a condition the building shouldn't be in with tenants in it. My guess after bids: 6 to 9k for the electrical and a few hundred for the rest.

Pile two is age. Roof at 19 years, two furnaces from the 90s, and the lateral if the plumber says the roots are a maintenance clean rather than a collapse. Nobody gets that paid for at 585k on a 22 year owner who doesn't need to sell. Asking for it is what made your 24k read as a repricing attempt, which is why you got a number that looks like it was picked to make you go away.

So the shape of the counter is: 8k plus the electrical bid on paper, seller does the flue collar and the handrail before closing, you eat the roof and the furnaces and put them in your reserve schedule. If the plumber says collapsed line, that's a new conversation and worth an extension even at the risk you named.

Scope creep warning on the electrical. "One bedroom and the closet circuits" turns into the whole back half of the unit about a third of the time, because the wire runs where it wants to. Ask the electrician to bid it with a contingency line for opening additional walls, and get that in the number you hand the seller.

I pushed on almost exactly this last spring, 4-unit, and the seller pulled it and relisted 6k higher out of spite. It came back to me 40 days later at 11k under my last offer because two other buyers ran the same report and reached the same conclusion. Cost me a second inspection fee and 40 days of nothing. I'd do it again, but I wouldn't do it if I needed the deal to close this quarter.