Buying A Home
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Question about repairs?
I've posted about asking our sellers to fix the roof and they are looking into it. They just asked for a second extension (likely to extend 2 weeks past our first asking about it) and I'm worried about our timeline of things. What would be your thoughts on instead asking for a cash allowance instead of the repair? The roof has 3-4 years left on it and they were looking to their insurance to see if they'd help fix it. I just don't want to keep granting extensions and hurt our closing date timeline and then it not get fixed. I know a cash allowance isn't guaranteed either. What do you think?
Re: Question about repairs?
I would only ask for a cash allowance if they could not get their insurance company to pay for a new roof or if they weren't willing to replace the roof. Also find out if you can insure your house with the roof it its current condition.
I wouldn't be inclined to ask for a cash allowance because you would need a huge cash allowance to replace a roof. 3-4 years is a guess. One hard winter and you might need a new roof next spring.
It is just a repair, or replacing the whole roof? I look at 3-4 years on a roof the same way I'd look at 3-4 years left on a HVAC - its a normal cost of owning a house, and that's your responsibility, not the seller. I would make sure the house is priced accordingly, and if you ask for a cash allowance, I'd factor in a percentage of the roof, not the whole thing, since you still have 3-4 years out of it.
We live in the Indy area (Fishers), and had our roof replaced twice in the last five years due to hail. The first time, we actually had to fight the insurance company and went to court - and it took 18 months. Less than 6 months after it was replaced, we had another huge hail storm and it had to be replaced again (no fighting insurance that time, the damage was terrible).
Depending on the seller's area (were they in the middle of the 'hail zone'?) - if they were, then I would wait for them to get their insurance company involved. If they weren't in area heaviest hit by hail, I'd ask for a small allowance and move on to get on your closing timeline.
I don't think it was in the hardest hit hail zone. The house in in Franklin. Our inspector didn't say anything about hail damage. It's just normal wear is what he told us. We asked the sellers to fix it just to see what they would say. They are the ones that turned it into insurance. If we decide to ask for the cash allowance, I wouldn't ask for all of it. Maybe only a couple thousand.
Good luck! Hopefully you can get some concessions for the roof, and be in your new house soon. Insurance companies can be SO diffucult to deal with - my 18 month battle with them ending in court was no fun. If it wasn't the hardest hit zone, its so hard to prove hail damage vs. other damage.
And insurance companies were ultra sensitve to 'hail damage fraud' in our area - for example, people actually went up on their roofs with little baggies with dimes in them, and beat the roof with them to simulate hail damage. It really happened - in my area - multiple times. Eeek.