To negotiate a new roof when buying a home, you have to plead your cause and reach an agreement, confirm the cost of a new roof and its replacement, and sought out the warranties.
Generally, how negotiations turn out depends largely on the negotiating parties’ negotiation skills. It is important for a prospective homeowner to have impressive negotiating skills before venturing into the purchase of a home.
At least, make sure he or she is accompanied by a skilled negotiator as one hundred percent of the time, he will be negotiating with professionals who have been in the business of selling homes and roofs for a considerable number of years.
In order not to spend more than is necessary, or more than is due to purchase a new roof when buying a new home, figuring out how to go about the negotiation process is paramount, and this article will help you understand how to negotiate a new roof when buying a new home.
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Can You Negotiate a New Roof When Buying a New Home?
Yes, you can negotiate a new roof when buying a house if you feel the room on the house is old or damaged.
Many of these new homes often come with damaged roofs, probably roofs that have been affected by hailstones, roofs that have depreciated with years, or other problems that only take getting a new roof to fix.
This is what brings up the issue of negotiating for a new roof when you want to buy a new home.
It will be a mistake to pay for a home with a damaged roof at the full cost you would have gotten it with a roof still intact, this is why it is important to negotiate a lower cost to the house, to help you purchase a new roof.
In such cases as this, the buyer of the new home will enter into a negotiation with the seller, or sellers as the case may be, to negotiate home to replace the roof of the home to make sure that the roof incidence or cost falling completely on the buyer of the home.
There are various ways to go about negotiating a new roof, however, let’s first understand the concept of negotiation.
What is Negotiation?
According to Investopedia, negotiation, in simple terms, means a strategic discussion that resolves an issue in a way that both parties find acceptable.
It is the coming together of a buyer and a seller, or two parties where both have the same interests in the same subject matter but have different propositions that don’t agree.
These two parties then come together to find a consensus, a middle ground where they all can agree on the same thing or the same outcome.
In a case where a prospective homeowner wants to purchase a home and he meets with a seller who quotes an already made price, if the buyer is not satisfied with the price he is getting, that is, if the price is above the budget of the buyer, the buyer can then go ahead to try the negotiation approach, cut down the already made price the seller has quoted and proposed his price to the seller who then determines whether that price is a fair enough price for the home.
In a case where this home in question needs a few reconstructions, probably a new roof needs to be constructed as a result of damages, the buyer can then further negotiate the price of the home to the tune of the cost of the new roof that would be reconstructed.
For instance, Mrs. Hill wants to purchase a home that has been quoted at three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000). She meets with the sellers and managed to negotiate with them, successfully reducing the price to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).
Then she realizes, before finalizing payment, that the roof has experienced depreciation or damages, and it would cost another ($20,000) to get a new roof for the new home, she could then negotiate a new roof to the tune of that amount, with the seller of the home, and so, instead of paying $250,000 for the home, she pays the sum of $230,000.
How to Negotiate a New Roof When Buying a Home
Plead Your Cause
The very first thing to do after inspecting the new home is to reach the seller, either the previous homeowner or the agent, whoever you are in direct contact with for the purchase, concerning the damages and the new roof needed for the home.
Here, they have two options; either they discount the amount of the home to the tune of the new roof the home needs, or they fix a new roof by themselves. Your real estate agent must guide you through this process.
Many times, buyers prefer the sellers fixing the roof for themselves just so they don’t go through the stress of constructing a roof right after buying the home.
However, just the same way the buyers don’t want to go through the stress and financial expenses of fixing the roof for themselves, in many cases, the sellers are also adamant to fix the roof for themselves.
They prefer dropping the price of the home to the tune of the replacement cost.
There is another negotiation strategy that both parties often explore when they are at a standstill.
The buyers pay the full amount for the home, without the sellers repairing the roof, and then the sellers pay for the new roof reconstruction in full, while the buyers oversee the project.
Confirm the Cost of Replacement
You must confirm the cost of getting a new roof before settling on whatever kind of decision you would agree on during negotiations.
It is wise to make sure all the costs that will be incurred during the process of replacing the roof are spelled and written out so as not to shortchange yourself during negotiations.
Don’t make the mistake of using estimates. Always confirm from either one authentic roofing company, or get quotations from two or more companies and stick with whichever one you think is best.
Once the costs are spelled out, it is either to negotiate, whether you want a discount on the home as a result of the roof, or you want payment for the new roof.
Sort out the Warranties
In the case where the new roof is to be fixed by the previous homeowners, ensure that the type of roof warranty is transferable.
Some roofers have a non-transferable warranty policy where the warranty on the roof automatically gets annulled once there is the transfer of ownership of the home.
Be sure that the type of warranty policy you are getting is transferable to you after finally claiming ownership of the home. Check out: 6 Best Roof Vent For Low Slope Roof
Final Thoughts
Ensure that whatever decision you make at the end of the negotiations is legal. It should be written down in a contract, crosschecked by agents and appropriate attorneys to be sure that it is legally binding, in the case of any brouhaha in the future, as there have been many cases where the court have thrown out similar contracts and rendered them illegal or void. While negotiating for a new home, it is important to be careful at every turn.
