How to Negotiate Repair Requests After a Home Inspection in California

The inspection report lands, and it feels like the deal is falling apart. Most sellers feel that moment. Dozens of items, from the condition of the water heater to a cracked outlet cover, listed in a document that reads like a catalog of what is wrong with the home you have lived in for years. Then the buyer sends a Request for Repair, and you have to decide what to do.

Here is how I walk my sellers through it.

In California, the standard buyer repair request is a formal document. It lists specific items from the inspection report the buyer is asking you to address before closing. It comes with a deadline, usually a few days, and if you do not respond, the buyer can cancel under the inspection contingency and walk with their deposit. This is not a demand you must accept. It is an opening move in a negotiation.

Fix it. You hire a licensed contractor, make the repair, and provide documentation. This makes sense for clear health and safety items that buyers will push on regardless of how the conversation goes.

Credit it. Instead of making the repair yourself, you give the buyer a closing cost credit or a price reduction, and they handle the work after close. Faster for complex jobs, and it gives the buyer control over who does the work. Not all loan types allow credits above a certain amount, so the lender needs to weigh in on that piece.

Counter or decline. If the item is minor, cosmetic, or already disclosed, you can push back. A buyer asking you to replace a roof that was disclosed as aged and priced into the deal is different from a buyer uncovering a structural issue neither of you knew about. You are allowed to say no, especially to items that would have been obvious in a walkthrough.

Real health and safety items, active leaks, electrical hazards, a failed HVAC system, these deserve a response. Buyers and their lenders often require certain categories to be addressed before funding.

Cosmetic items and deferred maintenance that was visible and already priced in are different. A buyer who saw the worn deck during the showing and wrote an offer knowing the condition, then uses the inspection to ask for a new deck, is negotiating, not revealing a hidden problem. You can decline, split the difference, or do nothing and see if they proceed. Most buyers do not walk over minor items when they genuinely want the home.

The goal is not to fight every request. It is to close on terms that make sense for you. I help my sellers sort the list: safety items go to the top and get handled, cosmetic items get pushed back on or countered, and genuine unknowns, the problems that were not visible or disclosed in advance, get a harder conversation. For the full picture of what happens between an accepted offer and closing, read what happens after you accept an offer.

The seller who goes into an inspection knowing the condition of their home has an easier negotiation than the one who is hearing about problems for the first time alongside the buyer. Part of my pre-listing process is a walkthrough that surfaces likely inspection findings in advance, so nothing comes as a surprise and you have already thought through how you would handle each one. More on that in how I prepare a Westside home for the market.

The inspection period is when sellers need their agent most. I handle the back-and-forth, explain the report in clear, simple terms, and help you respond in a way that protects your net without losing a buyer who wants the home. I stay in touch.

If you are selling a long-held Westside home and want to talk through what to expect, book a consultation. No pressure, just real answers.

If you are weighing a sale on the Westside, the useful first conversation is not about a listing price. It is about what your home needs, what it will cost, and what it is likely to return. First Key Pacific is my practice, and I walk the property before anyone spends a dollar. Tell me about your home and we will start there.