Buying A Home
*This is not legal advice*
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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.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Appliance Credit Question
So we are looking at a house which does not come with any appliances, and we were thinking about asking for a closing credit for appliances. Has anyone done this, and/or what would be a reasonable amount to ask of the seller given that we will have to buy a fridge, washer, dryer, oven, dishwasher, and microwave?
*This is not legal advice*
Re: Appliance Credit Question
What's reasonable will depend on the rest of your offer. The bottom line is that the final price of the house needs to be in line with comps, which your realtor should be able to tell you what a fair price for the home would be based on the comps. The sellers won't care how you get there -- say the home is worth 200K. You can offer them 200K or you can offer 210K and ask for 10K in appliance credits, thus bringing the real price to 200K. Of course, you can always offer less to give yourself some room to negotiate but knowing the comps gives you an idea of where you're likely to end up. Also, keep in mind if the sellers aren't very willing to negotiate with a credit that there are a lot of zero interest type deals on appliances so it may be more worthwhile for you to open a Home Depot or wherever credit card and pay the appliances off with zero interest than to add money to your offer on the house which you'll have to pay back with interest (albeit low interest) over the next 15 or 30 years.
What I would do is go to a couple of stores like Home Depot, Sears, wherever you'd get the appliances from and determine the price range of the quality of models you're interested in and ask for that amount of a credit. It's good homework anyway because you'll already have the appliances picked out when you get the house, so it will be one less thing to worry about.
One more thing -- this varies by area, but in my area, the refrigerator, washer, and dryer do not convey with a house unless they are specifically negotiated into a contract. So as a seller, I wouldn't be inclined to give a buyer a credit for the cost of a refrigerator, washer, or dryer because they're not getting those with any other house either. Oven and dishwasher do typically convey with the house so I can understand wanting a credit for those. Microwave would typically convey if it's hooked up for an over-the-range one, but not if you would just be sitting one on the counter (even so, you should still be able to ask for the amount of a range hood). Again, your realtor can advise you on what's typical in your area.