Your inspection report is not a to-do list. It is a negotiating tool, and most buyers use it backwards.
Eighty pages land in your inbox. You panic, you ask the seller to fix everything, and the seller stops listening. That is how leverage gets thrown away in a single email.
Here is the sort that works. Safety: anything that can hurt someone. Structural: roof, foundation, systems. Cosmetic: everything you can simply see. Bring the first two to the table. Never the third.
And the honest part. No house passes clean. Every property has a list, and a long report usually means a thorough inspector rather than a bad house. You are buying a used building, not a new phone.
Ask for fewer things and you will get more of them. A short, serious list gets taken seriously. Forty items gets you a flat no.
Inspections work differently around the world, but the triage does not. Try it wherever you are and tell me how it lands.
The short version
- Then they ask for everything.
- And the seller stops listening.
- Safety: anything that can hurt someone.
- Structural: roof, foundation, systems.
- Cosmetic: everything you can see.
- Bring the first two. Never the third.
- You are buying a used building, not a new phone.
Talk it through with Kini
Kini will run it with you on your real budget, anywhere in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside or San Bernardino County. No charge and no pitch.
Book a consultation or call or text (323) 320-1725. See this month's numbers for your county.