What to ask the seller to fix — and what to ask for instead

Why long lists backfire

A twenty-item repair request reads as a renegotiation of the price, and sellers respond to it as one — defensively, and often by refusing the whole list. A three-item request reads as a specific, reasonable concern, and gets a specific, reasonable answer.

You also lose control of quality. A seller motivated to close will hire the cheapest trade available, and you inherit that work with no recourse. For anything that matters, a credit and your own contractor is a better outcome than a repair you did not supervise.

The three things worth asking for

Safety and habitability items — active leaks, electrical hazards, gas, anything structural. These are the requests sellers most often grant, because refusing them threatens the sale with the next buyer too.

Specialist evaluations, which cost the seller little and resolve your biggest unknowns. Ask for the evaluation rather than the repair when you do not yet know the scope.

Credits rather than repairs, wherever you care about how the work is done.

How to write the ask

Quote the inspector's own words and cite the page. A request phrased in your language invites debate about whether the problem is real; a request quoting the report they also received does not.

State what you want — repair, credit, or evaluation — and by when. Ambiguity is what stalls these negotiations.

When to walk

Walking is rational when the unknowns are large and the seller will not let you resolve them. A seller who refuses a $400 engineer's evaluation on a foundation is telling you something about what the evaluation would find.