Hereโ€™s how James Morrison at Banker and Tradesman reported on Dave Twombly, my favorite agent of the week (wink!)

Buyers Need Protection

Just down Mass. Ave. at 4 Buyers Real Estate, also in Cambridge, the exclusive buyer agents tell the buyers they work with that home inspection contingencies are a must, according to agent Dave Twombly.

โ€œI tell every prospective buyer I meet with if they want to waive the home inspection, weโ€™re not the agency for them,โ€ Twombly said. โ€œIโ€™ve never had a buyer waive their right to a home inspection.โ€

Twombly said he has had clients who waived their mortgage contingency, but only when they confirmed that they had the funds to pay cash for the house if they had to.

โ€œIโ€™ve had four deals in Cambridge this year, all with home inspections,โ€ Twombly said. โ€œI had two deals this year where we had inspections and we beat out people who waived inspections.โ€

To strengthen his buyersโ€™ offers without increasing their risk, Twombly said he sometimes counsels them to compress the deadline for the inspection, increase the binding deposit and agree not to try to renegotiate home inspection issues that might arise unless they exceed a certain (high) dollar amount.

โ€œThatโ€™s the whole reason why we exist as an agency,โ€ Twombly said. โ€œTo minimize risk for our clients.โ€

Banker and Tradesman is a professional publication, not for consumers. So the article had an agent spin to it.

First it quoted an agent saying that the market is so competitive, they must tell buyers that they have almost no chance of getting an accepted offer if they have a mortgage or inspection contingency. She carefully notes that she never advises them to waive their inspection or mortgage contingency rights.

Then, James Morrison explained why this bad for agents, because it increases their liability. We care less about liability and more about our clients being happy, when all is said and done. Our experience has made us very good at finding problems in houses before a home inspection. But, home inspectors still know more and find more (and sometimes have nifty solutions to problems we find.)

As my Aunt Anna used to say, โ€œDonโ€™t create a 3-year problem in order to solve a 30-day problem.โ€ Thatโ€™s what buyers who waive home inspections could be doing.

 

Friends donโ€™t let friends hire dual agents!