June 20, 2008
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I recently sold one of my clients’ homes in a
Bethesda neighborhood, and the buyers got their financing (no small task these days!). The buyers also did an extensive 4 hour home inspection. They then submitted to the sellers a list of 15 items on the property to be repaired or replaced. The first thing my sellers asked was “can we do the repairs ourselves and save some money, or do we have to hire licensed (expensive) contractors”?
The answer is somewhat complex so I need to respond that in some cases you can do some of the repairs yourself and in (most) other cases it is wise to hire a licensed contractor. Let me explain. If a light has burned out in a fixture and the inspector reported the fixture not working, the seller can easily fix the problem by him/herself. Simply change the light bulb. On the other hand, if the inspector said the roof leaks and the seller patches the roof and tells the buyer it is fixed, then the seller remains responsible for the repair after settlement.
Should the roof leak again in the same place shortly after settlement, the seller (who in this case is moving out of state) will be required to make the repair good. This can create all kinds of logistical and financial issues for my seller. It is much smarter to hire a local roofer, let the roofer do the repair and let the license of the roofer be on the hook to ensure the quality of the job.
We simply cannot be a jack-of-all-trades. I really feel that it is best to leave electrical, plumbing, roofing and HVAC issues to the professionals with licenses. For serious structural repairs you should hire a general contractor for the same reason described above. This could involve subcontractors doing carpentry, gutters, masonry, chimney flue repairs, and so on.
Sometimes efforts to save money end up costing a lot more because of duplication of effort and having to correct inappropriate and amateurish work. I advise my sellers not to be “penny wise and pound foolish” as the old saying goes. Remember, the buyer will likely bring the home inspector back for a final walk through and the buyer will expect a quality job. Inspectors can be wrong so an invoice from a licensed HVAC contractor saying the furnace is in operating order “trumps” the opinion of the inspector or buyer saying it is not working properly.
As a seller, you do not want some petty item to create a dispute that slows down settlement and prevents you from obtaining all of your equity.
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