In my previous post, I mentioned that I have a client who waited four months for a lender approval on a short sale. We finally received and and moved into escrow. What quickly came after almost killed the sale! Here's what happened. The first thing we did was order a termite inspection. This inspection, by the way, was not paid for by the seller or seller's lender, as I have found lenders don't approve termite inspections/repairs when dealing with short sales. But, a termite inspection is important when buying a home because the report will call out not only termite infestation, but also wood dry rot and wood damage. Turns out, our report estimated about $6,500 in repairs! That's a lot of money.
We decided to get a second opinion on wood repair. Many times you can save some money by have the termite company handle the fumigation and having a skilled handyman handle the wood repair or replacement. Our handyman bid came in at $4,000 which when added to the $1,325 fumigation cost totalled $5,135. That's a lot of savings.
We didn't stop there. There was some stains on the ceiling noted by the termite report so we called out a roofing contractor to assess the roof. Yes, there were some minor failures in the roof, mainly caused by lack of maintenance around the vents and junctions. That estimate wasa $1,400 to bring the roof up to snuff and provide a 3 year warranty.
My client was getting cold wet by this time and noticed another home in the area for sale. Long story short we ended up putting an offer on the 2nd home. . . . by the time we heard back from that seller (reo lender), my clients decided to continue with their original decision. Yes, another ride on the roller coaster of real estate sales. Now we are back on track and my client is saving even more money after a 2nd termite company bid came in at $4,125 total! My client still will come out ahead because prices in that area have climbed a bit and I estimate even with the additional $5,500 in termite and roof repairs, he's about $15k under market value at this point!
Until next time. . . Crista :)
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Oh, it's good to hear that a roofing contractor (together with a new termite company) was able to save the house that you're selling. And it comes at a cheaper bidding price, too! I hope that house is on the books now. :)
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