Do you hand the seller the whole inspection report or just the items you want fixed?

Question

Working through my first purchase and the question came up before I expected it. My agent wants to send the seller the full report as an attachment with the repair request. Her reasoning is that the seller can see the whole picture, the ask looks reasonable next to 30 other items I'm not asking about, and it's harder to accuse you of cherry-picking.

A guy I know who buys small multifamily says never send the report. Send a short list of the items you want addressed with bids attached, because the full report contains a lot of language the seller will use against you later, and in some states it can end up in the seller's disclosure file for the next buyer if you walk. That last part varies by state and I'd want a real answer from an attorney where I'm buying.

There's a third version I've seen suggested, which is send the summary page only, the one the inspector writes as a list of significant findings, plus contractor bids on the two or three items you care about.

I can see the case for all three. The full report reads as good faith. The short list keeps control of the narrative. The summary page is a compromise that might get the worst of both.

tylerbrooks9 · Accepted Answer

I've done it both ways on two purchases and the short list worked better, for a reason that isn't about strategy. Sellers don't read 38 pages. They read the first thing that makes them angry and stop.

When I sent the full report the seller's response came back arguing about a note on a loose downspout. That was never in my ask. It set the tone for the whole negotiation and we ended up haggling over items I didn't care about.

Second time I sent four items, one paragraph each, with a bid attached to the two expensive ones. Seller agreed to three of four in a day.

The cherry-picking accusation your agent is worried about never came up, because the bids did the work. A seller can dispute your opinion about a furnace. He can't do much with a written quote from a licensed HVAC company. That's the piece that decides these, in my limited experience, and it's independent of how much paper you send.

On the disclosure question, ask an attorney in your state. Some states do treat what a seller learns from your report as something they now know, and that changes their incentive to negotiate at all.

stephen_ok9 · Answer

verity's right about sellers not reading, but I'd note the full report has one use the short list doesn't. If you're asking for a big number, the seller's agent is going to tell them your ask is inflated. Handing over everything lets the agent do the arithmetic and land on "he's only asking about six of 29 items," which is a real argument in your favor and one you can't make yourself without looking defensive.

Depends how big your ask is relative to price.

derekj19 · Answer

Nobody's mentioned the inspector's view. Two I've talked to hate having their full report forwarded around, because it was written for one client under an agreement with one client, and once it's circulating they get calls from people who never hired them. One of them told me he now watermarks every page with the client name for exactly that reason. Doesn't answer tender's question but it's part of why some agents default to the summary page.

Do you hand the seller the whole inspection report or just the items you want fixed?

3 replies