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The inspection process is when you, the buyer, have the right to check your potential new home over throughly. You will want a qualified inspector to check your home out from top to bottom. There are many things in a home that can go wrong. Some things of which the seller may be unaware. Although you can hire everything from Mold inspectors to Pygmy Owl inspectors - typically we will recommend a General Home Inspector to go through your home with a fine tooth comb and flag any areas of concern. When there are issues flagged by the General Inspector you can proceed to hire additional professionals that specializes in that area. The following are typical inspections:
- Roofing
- Pest
- Pool
- Heating / AC
- Mold
How are the time frames calculated on the inspection?
By default, the Arizona Residential Purchase Contract states that a buyer has 10 days to perform Due Diligence on inspections. If you are out of state, on vacation or feel you will need more time we can certainly negotiate the number of days you need to check over your new home.
All days per contract are calculated from Midnight to 11:59 PM. That means when you calculate your days, day one of inspection is going to be the day after contract acceptance. For example, if everyone comes to a meeting of the minds on Monday and we have a signed contract by all parties delivered to the final party, Tuesday would be day 1 of the inspection.
What is the Buyers Request / Sellers Response?
As a buyer, again, you have 10 days to have any and every kind of inspector you want come through the home. This is all at a buyer, out of pocket cost. Once you have your final inspection reports back from the inspectors, you will sit with your agent and go over the report and compile a "wish list" of repairs you and your agent feel are highly important. Repairs requested should be material to the over all "bones" of your new home. In other words, cosmetic repairs are rarely taken seriously and it is difficult and not required that a seller address cosmetic items.
Then what?
Once you have created your "wish list" of repairs, your agent will deliver it to the listing agent. There may be verbal conversations between agents to make sure the buyer and seller have come to a meeting of the minds before a final written request is made on your behalf. If you send your request for repairs prior to the 10th day, your inspection window closes on that day. In other words, if you send over your request on day 6, you cannot go back and perform further inspections.
After the seller receives your request for repairs they have 5 days to respond with one of the three options:
1) Accept and agree to perform all repair requests.
2) Reject some of the repair requests and agree to some.
3) Reject all repair request.
If the seller agrees to all repair requests, the inspection process is closed and the seller has until three days prior to closing to complete the repairs they agreed to. If the seller doesn't agree to make all repairs, you then have 5 days to decide if you want to move forward with the purchase of your new home or you can cancel in writing and are entitled to a full refund of your earnest money. Once you decide to move forward and your agent delivers the notice saying you accept the sellers response, the inspection window closes and your earnest money becomes non-refundable for inspections. NOTE: THE FAILURE OF THE BUYER TO PUT REPAIR REQUESTS IN WRITING AND NOTIFY SELLER OF UNACCEPTABLE ITEMS DEEMS THE INTENT TO MOVE FORWARD WITHOUT REPAIRS.
This document is called the BUYERS REQUST, SELLERS RESPONSE and it can be viewed below:
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