Most people think what a realtor does is open doors for buyers until they find the house they want, make the offer, then wait until the closing to get their check. (Truthfully, some realtors think this too!)

It is really about protecting people as you lead them through the process of buying or selling.

You’ve gotta know what a house is worth to make sure your client doesn’t pay too much if they are the buyer or sell too low if they are the seller.

You’ve gotta know enough about houses to help them decide what to do after a home inspection.

You’ve gotta make sure they don’t agree to anything that would be bad for them or come back later and bite them in their rear end.

I am in a deal right now where I am really, REALLY working hard at doing all this.

The home of my Seller’s was just inspected. Their Buyer asked for over $13,000 in repairs. There were issues with mold, plumbing, hvac and the roof. Doesn’t all that sound terrible? I asked the Buyer’s agent to send me pictures from the inspection report. As I read over clips from the report that pertained to the requested items, it became clear to me that most of these issues were very minor. We either had a skiddish first time buyer or somebody who viewed this as an opportunity to squeeze some money out of my people. I remembered that the contract the Buyer’s realtor used had their address on it. I looked them up on the PVA. Our Buyers have owned their current home for a long time. That told me they were not skiddish first time buyers.

My Sellers told me the most they would credit the Buyers for repairs. I said let’s offer a little less so that if they come back for more, we can go to your max and then they will feel like they won. As I often say, the person who won the last battle feels like they won the entire war. We reached an agreement for a fraction of what they requested.

But wait! This is not over yet. Normally for realtors in my area, the repairs are requested on a specific form. That form is a binding document between the Buyer and Seller. We write whatever agreement is struck on that form. Then if there is a price change that the Buyer’s lender needs to know about, we write an addendum reflecting the change.

This out-of-area agent used a somewhat generic contract that does not have a supporting document for the repair list. She simply emailed me the request and we negotiated it. Now we need to write an addendum for the Buyer’s lender. No big deal right? Well, we don’t have anything documented that says that this price concession is in exchange for performing the repairs. While it is implied in my communication with the Buyer’s agent, I really want it to be crystal clear so I am going to have to make something that states that. My dad is retired now but he was a brilliant lawyer. He always told me when I started in this business to write things so that a 3rd party (like a judge or mediator) can clearly see what was agreed upon and what each party needed to do.