I am currently working with a first time buyer. Having never been involved in a real estate transaction before, she is understandably nervous about the process.

We found her a new home that a builder never managed to sell before going bankrupt. The home is now bank owned and (as is the case with most bank owned properties) is being sold “As Is.”

We scheduled the inspection and I explained to her that weren’t looking for problems that we would ask to be repaired, but we were verifying that the home didn’t have any vital flaws that would cause her to want to rescind her offer. I mentioned cracked foundations and severe plumbing problems to demonstrate my point. This was a take-it or leave-it deal. We weren’t at all worried because this was new construction built by a reputable builder in the area.

The home had a clean bill of health until the inspector went under the house in the crawl space. When he came back out, he was covered in mud. I knew what that meant and my client suspected that something was wrong. The inspector informed us that there was standing water in the crawl space that could cause some serious problems if it wasn’t remedied.

My client was devastated. She knew that the bank would never make repairs because this is an “As Is” listing. Right? Take-it or Leave-it?

WRONG!

Although the listing agent wasn’t too happy to hear from me regarding the water issue, I convinced him to submit our request for repairs to the bank. The leverage that I applied was simple yet effective. The repair would have to be made before the home could sell to anyone and now that the problem had been discovered, they would be forced to disclose it to any new prospective buyers. Why not fix it now for my buyer who is here and willing to follow through with the purchase?

To the listing agent’s surprise, the bank reluctantly agreed to make repairs. We are scheduled to close on June 17th.