Should I Waive My Home Inspection in a Competitive Market?
My sister and brother-in-law are trying to buy a home here in St. Petersburg, Florida or surrounding cities like Largo or Seminole, but like many other buyers in 2021, are getting frustrated. They’ve put in several offers on homes they like under $400,000, but keep getting outbid by cash buyers and institutional buyers paying way over asking price in most cases. It’s a tough situation to be in when you need to get a mortgage.
Finally, we made an offer on one that got accepted – yay! We did a short inspection period and did our inspection on day 1 of the contract. Turns out, the inspector found mold. And lots of it, along with many other items of concern. You see the home was a flip. It looks fantastic on the inside! But one thing the inspector immediately noticed was that there were 2 AC units and the house was only 1,300 square feet. Odd, right? Turns out it was because the cathedral roof line meant there was no attic – so the prior owner apparently did an AC unit on each side of the home because there was nowhere to bring ductwork across the top of the house.
Now normally I wouldn’t think of too much AC being a bad thing…but apparently it can be! If you have oversized AC tonnage for the size of your home, it continually is pushing cool air and there’s nowhere for humidity to escape to, which results in – you guessed it – MOLD. Both AC units were from 2006 too and on their last legs, and full of mold, as well as we could see streaks of mold all over the garage walls.
So what’s my point?
I am seeing crazy things in contracts right now in this competitive Tampa Bay real estate market. Buyer’s waiving appraisal contingencies, waiving inspections, throwing in their first born child…you...
