Thread: Who Gets Inspection Reports

I hope you guys will answer a question from a rookie home buyer.

We did inspections today on a REO in Sparks NV. I paid for all of the inspections myself. My real estate agent wants to send the inspection reports to the bank that owns the house. Is this something I should be concerned about? Thanks for any help.

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It all depends on your situation, even if the house is listed "as is", the seller may reduce the price or make repairs after seeing the report. In most cases you will have to hand over the report to the seller to get your deposit back if you want to walk away. If a seller does not want to address the inspection issues or give you back your deposit, you could show the report only to your lender which would likely end the deal due to lack of a loan which should entitle you to a refund of your deposit. This of course is offered as generic information and not actual advice and you should consult with your real estate attorney.

Some inspectors have copyright warnings in their report in order to have recourse against an agent that hands the report over to the next "buyer".
Many buyers have been burned by relying on old reports and inspections done by non-thorough inspectors hired by the sellers.

Very good question.

1. you say this is an REO. Will the bank give you any reduction in the price for condition listed in your report ?

2. You may need 3 Construction bids for the work listed in your report.

3. Why send the complete report. ? just send the pages that list the work you want to be corrected.

4. Us Inspectors see our reports given to new buyers that did not pay for these reports. this is at the had of Real estate agents. if you do not buy this property the bank now got all this information free.

Others will jump in soon with more information for you to think about...

5. Ask your agent to show you in your real estate contract where it say you will provide any or all or a inspection reports to the selling bank. If its not in your contract then you are not required to give them a copy of the reports.

6. So you did a Home inspection and a ? ( pest /termite inspection ) ( roof inspection ) ( well inspection ) can you list the inspection you did ?

7. Your name and address and phone # and email information is on that report. do you want that information out for all to see and have ?

8. If you do not buy this property then you should get all copies back from your agent as this is your report. and it is your private property.


Best

Ron
SANTA ROSA PEST CONTROL .COM
Santa Rosa California Home Inspection - Exterminating & Thermal Imaging

Originally Posted by First Time Buyer

I hope you guys will answer a question from a rookie home buyer.

We did inspections today on a REO in Sparks NV. I paid for all of the inspections myself. My real estate agent wants to send the inspection reports to the bank that owns the house. Is this something I should be concerned about? Thanks for any help.

Hi First time
I do not know about your area ,but in the Chicago area only a fool transacts Real Estate with no Real Estate lawyer.

I understand in some areas this may not be the case but it stands as good advice.

You have a summery punch list hopefully, with a list of concerns that the Inspector had along with some recommendations.

The recommendation part could be something such as suggesting you update the wiring to meet present day code standards such as lack of GFCI in a 50 year old home.
(some things are grandfathered) It depends on local code.

In that type scenario I doubt you will get any help, but there may be gross defects or issues that are costly and were not revealed in a disclosure statement by the seller (which in this case is the Bank).

Normal practice with these foreclosure deals or short sales for that matter is the Bank stating "Sold as is".

Sounds daunting but the fact of the matter is they are not in the Real Estate business and need to get rid of these properties as they start going into states of disrepair or they have the expense of property preservation.

Get a good Lawyer and you never know what sort of reimbursement you might get.
All they can do is say no and so can you.

A professional Lawyer knows how to make demands or requests in ways that you do not.

So send a copy to your Lawyer and go over with him what you will send to the Bank.

It is simple as that.

The house is sold "as is, where is, etc." The bank won't do any repairs and most likely won't reduce the price according to my agent. The inspectors didn't find any major defects if I understood what they told me correctly. I still want to buy the house although I haven't seen the final reports yet.
Maybe the agent is just too eager to close the deal. If the sellers see the reports and I try to walk, could they force the sale or keep my good faith deposit since no major defects are documented?

Originally Posted by First Time Buyer

The house is sold "as is, where is, etc." The bank won't do any repairs and most likely won't reduce the price according to my agent. The inspectors didn't find any major defects if I understood what they told me correctly. I still want to buy the house although I haven't seen the final reports yet.
Maybe the agent is just too eager to close the deal. If the sellers see the reports and I try to walk, could they force the sale or keep my good faith deposit since no major defects are documented?

I doubt it but please reread what i wrote for you as I took the time to respond.
Get a Lawyer.Every area is a little different

Okay I will. Thanks.

Originally Posted by First Time Buyer

The house is sold "as is, where is, etc." The bank won't do any repairs and most likely won't reduce the price according to my agent. The inspectors didn't find any major defects if I understood what they told me correctly. I still want to buy the house although I haven't seen the final reports yet.
Maybe the agent is just too eager to close the deal. If the sellers see the reports and I try to walk, could they force the sale or keep my good faith deposit since no major defects are documented?

First... Relax your going to be fine... You can walk away from this for any reason as long as you are working within your contract... If you have and you should have a (subject to inspection) in your contract this sub-ject to inspection can be anything thing big or small. a missing nail in a board.

You should get a real estate Lawyer to go over things with you and keep your real estate agent in check.

Best

Ron

Originally Posted by First Time Buyer

Okay I will. Thanks.

Sorry to be explicit ,but you are going to get 5 million different answers after this and you will get more confused by us that are in all different areas of the country.

To be honest I do not know why you would want to back out if the issues are minor as you said.

Many small minor items can ad up to a lot of money ?

Get 3 contractors to give bids on the work listed in your reports.


Did you agent say anything to you about not getting your money back ?

I find that statement odd... it must be something hanging over your head why ?

Best

Ron

You could post that inspection report on here and watch it get devoured like sharks were going after it. No major defects, we'll see.

Agent is eager to close the deal? Now that would be a first, wouldn't it guys.

rick

Originally Posted by First Time Buyer

The house is sold "as is, where is, etc." The bank won't do any repairs and most likely won't reduce the price according to my agent. The inspectors didn't find any major defects if I understood what they told me correctly. I still want to buy the house although I haven't seen the final reports yet.
Maybe the agent is just too eager to close the deal. If the sellers see the reports and I try to walk, could they force the sale or keep my good faith deposit since no major defects are documented?

If you are not going to try to get any concessions from the owner, or if you feel that you are unlikely to get any concessions, I would not provide the report to them. However, as has already been said, it might be required under your contract/purchase agreement. In at least one of the common contracts used in CA, inspection reports are tp be shared when a request is made in writing. If that is the case with your purchase agreement, then I would wait until the bank sent me a letter requesting copies of the report(s). The bank may or may not get around to the letter.

I just read through the 25 pages of the offer and addendum again. I see that I did agree to deliver to the seller copies of all the inspection reports along with a signed written notice providing for one of the following:

A. approve of the inspections w/o requiring any repairs
B. " '' asking for list of repairs
C. termination of agreement including explanation of how the conditions revealed by any report materially/reasonably justify such a decision.

I've read through all this several times already but missed the part about giving the reports to the seller too. There were general, pest, sewer, and fireplace inspections all going on at once. I should have asked my RE agent the question but didn't really start to wonder why a bank in Texas would care about the reports until tonight.

What a confusing business. I can see why people don't buy very many houses in a lifetime.

Originally Posted by First Time Buyer

I just read through the 25 pages of the offer and addendum again. I see that I did agree to deliver to the seller copies of all the inspection reports along with a signed written notice providing for one of the following:

A. approve of the inspections w/o requiring any repairs
B. " '' asking for list of repairs
C. termination of agreement including explanation of how the conditions revealed by any report materially/reasonably justify such a decision..

If for any reason you want to back out you are not required to only pick one item of the report. you can list the complete report and each and every item in the report and that the report as a hole is more then you will except.

A good report will or should come to 20 plus pages of items that need adjustments / cleaning / service and general maintenance.

As stated by Rick... post that report on this board. lets see what inside. Let these inspectors on this board go over it for you... you have at best limited understand of these reports and how to address the issues listed. if you want help.

Best

Ron
SANTA ROSA PEST CONTROL .COM
Santa Rosa California Home Inspection - Exterminating & Thermal Imaging

Don't worry about giving the seller copies of the report unless they are providing your financing.
What is the worst they can do?
Not sell you the house because the report says the house is "too good"? Not sell you the house because it is too bad? (I don't think so!) The selling bank just wants the reports to put in a file that no one will read unless you try to sue them for concealing a defect after you purchase the house.
In this case it is just their lawyers making you prove that you did your due diligence.

Now on the other hand, if it is your lender wanting to see the reports, I would balk.
Lenders are going nuts daily, requiring repairs or escrow accounts to make repairs in case the loan goes bad.
This can really muck up the works if your lender gets scared.
Save them the trouble, show them proof of the inspection or a summary sheet, not the entire report if at all possible.
Just my 2 cents.

You don't need a lawyer other than a real estate attorney for closing which will more than likely not be picked by you but you can still get your own.

If your inspector found nothing of major concern then you are worrying about nothing.

If you want the home go forward with the deal. At this point it does not matter who gets a copy of the report.

As far as "as is, where is" I have seen items repaired by a bank on significant items or foundation concerns or leaky roofs or termite inspections. Any major such items can keep a property from getting sold and as is where is turns into "we will fix this but none of that". Remember a bank has to disclose major findings on the property such as the things I listed above. If major dollars they always seem to find some money somewhere. Especially in the FHA loan arena. FHA won't sign the check if there are major concerns with the home or termites. If they want to turn the home over and get it off their hands.

Other than paying for a real estate attorney just to review the closing paperwork there is no need for a lawyer unless you just like throwing money away.

Originally Posted by Ted Menelly

You don't need a lawyer other than a real estate attorney for closing which will more than likely not be picked by you but you can still get your own.

If your inspector found nothing of major concern then you are worrying about nothing.

If you want the home go forward with the deal. At this point it does not matter who gets a copy of the report.

As far as "as is, where is" I have seen items repaired by a bank on significant items or foundation concerns or leaky roofs or termite inspections. Any major such items can keep a property from getting sold and as is where is turns into "we will fix this but none of that". Remember a bank has to disclose major findings on the property such as the things I listed above. If major dollars they always seem to find some money somewhere. Especially in the FHA loan arena. FHA won't sign the check if there are major concerns with the home or termites. If they want to turn the home over and get it off their hands.

Other than paying for a real estate attorney just to review the closing paperwork there is no need for a lawyer unless you just like throwing money away.

I agree with Ted.

As far as the paperwork goes it pretty much says that if you don't pay, you don't stay! Another point is that if you don't sign the closing papers you don't get the house.

FYI, the real estate or closing attorney pretty much works for the bank. Their job is to make sure the documents are signed, the titles are searched, and that the funds are collected and dispersed. For states that close in escrow, it will be a little different.

The inspection results belong to YOU...you get to say where they go, unless Nevada has a law that says they must be provided to the seller. But this then begs the question, why do you not want them to see the report?
Generally speaking, the results of an inspection are for you, the buyer, to help make an informed decision about whether or not you want to continue with the purchase process. Sometimes buyers use the information discovered in an inspection, to negotiate a different price for the home.

Originally Posted by First Time Buyer

My real estate agent wants to send the inspection reports to the bank that owns the house. Is this something I should be concerned about?

No .There is a lot of good information here but that is the short answer.

I guess there is one thing I will add, you said:

The bank won't do any repairs and most likely won't reduce the price according to my agent.

The only time I have found this to be the case is in a short sale and since this is a REO you are buying a house that is past that point. I would be skeptical of the agent.

Lots of advice here. You've signed the reports over to the seller, so that's a done deal. I can only add that summaries of the reports will probably suffice. Keep the details to yourself.

In my area, a notary public can do everything a real estate lawyer would do, for a fraction of the cost, under $400 usually. Good luck.