Offer on House - Appliances!

[Momto4boys]

If I was the seller I would counter offer including new appliances and raise the prices by $5k.

This..if you can't afford to buy new appliances if they are needed you may want to rethink buying a house. Expensive repairs can come up out of nowhere.

 

[mrssmith06]

You need to talk to your Realtor about this. There are many options, Good luck!

 

[farmermr]

Wow. Just wow. It never occurred to me someone would do this .... you can bet I'm going to learn a lesson from your experience. Thanks for posting!

When we had our home inspection done, our inspector took photos of all of the appliances. We asked him why he was doing that, and this is what he told us, that people would switch out their appliances with old clunkers. If you have an inspection done, make sure the inspector takes lots of photos.

 

[Sinderelly]

Our house is on the market including all the appliances which are in great shape (only two years old, same as the house). I would want our buyers to have appliances that are in great shape and working order. If the appliances were not in great shape I would buy new before putting the house on the market or include an allowance for new in the selling price. We are trying to sell this house in order to buy a smaller one and in this market it's difficult.

OP I would subtract the cost of replacement appliances from your offer with a note to seller explaining that they need replaced. Good luck!v

 

[Bob NC]

if you can't afford to buy new appliances if they are needed you may want to rethink buying a house.

OMG. Who in the world said they couldn't afford new appliances? People on this board read a lot into posts just to make their own holier-than-thou responses.

 

[Sadie22]

In my area, this a totally normal and common thing to ask for. I don't see a problem with it.

Totally normal here as well.

 

[LUVMYTINK]

If they refuse, see if they will pay the $250-300 cost for the home warranty. If the appliances break down during the 1-year home warranty, don't they get replaced?

Most likely repaired, not necessarily replaced. Just happened to my sister with a fridge a few months ago. The repair was covered, but they certainly didn't offer to replace it.

They will only replace the appliances if they have come out more than one or two times with in a close amount of time ( ours was within a week of each visit) to try and repair the same appliance for the same reason-that was our stove. Or if the appliance is beyond repair, like our dishwasher that look like it was the original that came with the house when it was built in the mid 80's.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

When we sold our first house, the people wanted our washer/dryer and fridge and for us to repaint our DD's room (which was a pale pink at the time).

We countered with just the fridge. It was bought to specially fit in the space so we knew it probably wouldn't fit in another house. The washer and dryer were new so we didn't want to give those up.

They recountered with the fridge and the room repaint. So we went agreed. It took me an hour to repaint the room off white since it was so small and we didn't have to deal with moving the fridge.
I was fine with that.

Our current house we just wanted to make sure they left the stove and dishwasher. They asked if we wanted the window treatments. I said No thanks because it was curtains and we didn't like them. Well, when we moved in, they'd taken the whole curtain rods with them but left the brackets attached to the windows! They also took all the blinds which we thought would normally be included in the sale price (so did our very experienced realtor). We decided to close on the house rather than hold up the sale over those.

They also had taken the key to the gas fireplace. Our real estate agent was able to get that back by calling their agent and saying if they didn't have it at closing, we were going to hold up the closing.
She said it was a good thing we'd put for them to leave the stove and dishwasher in the contract because they would have probably taken those based on the curtain thing. LOL

 

[sookie]

Are you Kidding?? I would tell you to buy your own!! And I would not lower the price of my house for you!! This is something you should have been saving for, just like furniture!! And Dishes!

You might get an allowance from a builder of a new house, but most likely not in this economy, and even if you did, you still have to go to the store the builder uses and they will still be cheap builder grade appliances, not stainless steal or pro upgrades.

Lol ! Well I have my own now and they are nice! That is why I'm concerned!

 

[starry_solo]

OP - so, what happened?

 

[shaylyn]

Are you Kidding?? I would tell you to buy your own!! And I would not lower the price of my house for you!! This is something you should have been saving for, just like furniture!! And Dishes!

You might get an allowance from a builder of a new house, but most likely not in this economy, and even if you did, you still have to go to the store the builder uses and they will still be cheap builder grade appliances, not stainless steal or pro upgrades.

Yep, I have to agree. As long as they are working, there is no reason for the sellers to replace them. Kinda like asking for all of the walls to be re-painted because you don't like the color. Then again, I don't like carpet allowances either

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

You could try, but they might say no. As long as they are functioning, it is really just a cosmetic change. Additionally, the pricing would probably reflect a non-updated kitchen. If they had top of the line stainless steel (as an example), they would have listed a higher sales price.

You could, as suggested earlier, offer less on your purchase price. But not too much less. Fair market value of a decent, but not high end appliance. i.e. $1000 for a fridge, not $3500, for example. And then negotiate from there.

We bought a foreclosure and it really really needed an interior paint job (walls were quite filthy and I had no intentions of attacking them with a magic eraser). So we offered accordingly as we needed to save cash to have the inside painted and some obvious repairs done. We could not ask for these things to be done, since it was a foreclosure. But we could set our offer to account that we would need to do those things.

You should have a buyer's agent, who would be able to show you comps (ideally with ones that show kitchen condition) in the area so that you can make an appropriate offer taking all of that into account.

We did have a 1 year warranty that we got with our home purchase. All the clunker appliances are unfortunately are still going. I'm hoping that they will die soon so that DH will agree to replace them. Our oven takes much longer to cook things and the dishwasher is terrible. We brought our own fridge from our old house. (It was brand new, and we kept the old one--so the renters got that.) I would have brought my new dishwasher if I had the old one to put back.

 

[Mickeyluver37]

I don't think it can hurt to ask. It's a buyer's market right now, regardless of what people's opinions are on replacing the appliances.

We had a fairly new, but CHEAP dishwasher, that had been installed by DH in our house when we sold it. It looked fine for showings and functioned just ok, but something came back on the home inspection about it leaking water. I really think the inspector didn't close the door all the way, and that's partly due to the faulty design in installing it ourselves plus getting new tile floor after it went in that pushed it up a bit and made it harder to close. Anyway, buyers asked us to replace it.

I was HAPPY to counter-offer with $500 and not go through the hassle of finding a new dishwasher and paying someone to install it. We were less than 30 days to closing. No way would I have dug my feet in totally and risked the buyer walking.

ETA: We had also paid for a home warranty, so I'm not ultimately sure what the buyers really ended up doing, because in reality, it was just a $500 reduction on their closing costs.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Today is a buyer's market.
2) Of course, I would ask for an "appliance allowance". *
3) I would ask for $2,200-up-to-$2,500.
. . . fridge - $1,100
. . . stove - $600
. . . dishwasher - $500
4) All that could happen is they come back with a counter offer.

* People ask for carpet, repainting, repair allowances
all the time. If the seller wants the sale, they will bend.
If not, be prepared to lower the allowance or walk from
the sale. If your agent tells this to the seller, you will
be surprised how quickly people come around.

 

[sookie]

my concern is that almost 20 year old appliances might not last very long after we purchase the home. its really not as much of a cosmetic issue as you would think. we are busy people and at this time in our lives we do not have the time to deal with stuff breaking all the time. we are between this house and a new house (which we assume we would not have the "breakage" issue as much at least)... So that is where we are coming from. I'd hate to be in the house for 3 months and things start breaking left and right!!!
I'm calling the realtor in the AM and seeing where we are on the house (if it has gone under contract or not!) so we will see!! we don't want to rush into anything right now, that is for sure.

 

[patsal]

Not completely related to the op in her need, but my mom and dad just sold their house--they have lived there for 40 years and it was a big house. The appliances came with their new house so they were leaving the old ones since they worked fine and they didn't want to move them. They put a clause in the contract saying the appliances could stay at no additional cost to the buyer or they would remove them, just as is and no waranty--most were pretty new but they were covering themselves. When the buyer came through for her final walk through, it was pretty funny and obvious she was not the brightest bulb, she couldn't believe that my parents removed the wine from the wine cellar and that my dad took his tools from the basement, and my mom took her furiture and collectables--apparently she thought she was buying the house and all of its contents. A quick look through of her contract and an aside with her realator and it closed as scheduled, but seriously how uninformed.

 

[Praying Colonel]

They will only replace the appliances if they have come out more than one or two times with in a close amount of time ( ours was within a week of each visit) to try and repair the same appliance for the same reason-that was our stove. Or if the appliance is beyond repair, like our dishwasher that look like it was the original that came with the house when it was built in the mid 80's.

Different warranties cover different things. Sometimes they cover certain appliances and not others.

For example, our sellers purchased a home warranty, and we negotiated with them to leave all appliances, including the washer and dryer. The washer stopped spinning about a week after we moved in, and we called the warranty company. They said the level of coverage the sellers had purchased covered kitchen appliances only--not any appliances outside the kitchen (like the washer and dryer). We ended up buying a new washer since the cost to repair was about the same as buying a new washer. So read the fine print on the warranty and make sure you know what's covered and not covered.

As to OP's original question: no harm in asking. It's definitely a buyer's market around here, and you never know if the seller might be motivated enough to work with you. OP just has to be prepared to either accept the house without new appliances or move on to the other house.

 

[horseshowmom]

1) Today is a buyer's market.
2) Of course, I would ask for an "appliance allowance". *
3) I would ask for $2,200-up-to-$2,500.
. . . fridge - $1,100
. . . stove - $600
. . . dishwasher - $500
4) All that could happen is they come back with a counter offer.

* People ask for carpet, repainting, repair allowances
all the time. If the seller wants the sale, they will bend.
If not, be prepared to lower the allowance or walk from
the sale. If your agent tells this to the seller, you will
be surprised how quickly people come around.

Totally agree! I would have your realtor explain very nicely that you're deciding between two houses. The other one is brand new, which of course includes brand new appliances, and you're concerned about the longevity of the appliances in the older house. I don't think it's unreasonable to discuss it. As another poster said, they may tell you that issue was built into the price of the house, but it can't hurt to ask.

my concern is that almost 20 year old appliances might not last very long after we purchase the home. its really not as much of a cosmetic issue as you would think. we are busy people and at this time in our lives we do not have the time to deal with stuff breaking all the time. we are between this house and a new house (which we assume we would not have the "breakage" issue as much at least)... So that is where we are coming from. I'd hate to be in the house for 3 months and things start breaking left and right!!!
I'm calling the realtor in the AM and seeing where we are on the house (if it has gone under contract or not!) so we will see!! we don't want to rush into anything right now, that is for sure.

Perfectly reasonable concern. We have contemplated selling our house. I know that the stove is very near needing replaced (other appliances are nearly new). I would much rather deduct the price a little than fool with it myself!

Not completely related to the op in her need, but my mom and dad just sold their house--they have lived there for 40 years and it was a big house. The appliances came with their new house so they were leaving the old ones since they worked fine and they didn't want to move them. They put a clause in the contract saying the appliances could stay at no additional cost to the buyer or they would remove them, just as is and no waranty--most were pretty new but they were covering themselves. When the buyer came through for her final walk through, it was pretty funny and obvious she was not the brightest bulb, she couldn't believe that my parents removed the wine from the wine cellar and that my dad took his tools from the basement, and my mom took her furiture and collectables--apparently she thought she was buying the house and all of its contents. A quick look through of her contract and an aside with her realator and it closed as scheduled, but seriously how uninformed.

That, and the woman who wanted the serving pieces, is absolutely ridiculous! You have to wonder sometiems, don't you?

DD and her husband are looking at a place right now. The house has been empty for a couple of years, but still has lots of stuff in it (the husband died unexpectedly, and the wife went back to where her family is). DSiL would love for the large amount of tools to stay, but he certainly realizes that they don't "go with the house". They are contemplating making a side offer for the tools though.

 

[JoiseyMom]

OP, yes you can. Or you can just offer lower saying you need to replace the appliances. When we were looking for our current home, we first put an offer on another house. Now, they were going to strip it, nothing but the stove was being left behind, even all the fixtures . The house also had no central air (they went cheap when they built it), so we based our offer on having to install central air. Well these people were not negotiating at all...LOL. They countered with 100.00 under their asking price, and it took them days to do that. We just walked, we knew this wasn't something we wanted to deal wth, with the work and moeny we had to put into the house (20 years at the time).

The house we did buy, we based our offer on the market the condition of the house, and the items we felt we needed to replace. We had the highest we would pay, and negotiated from there. They met us and we were all happy. Well until they took the fridge from the basement that the contract said would stay (they sold it) and the central air that broke right after we moved in, and the other items the inspector didn't find .

Buying a house that isn't new...has its ups and downs! Good luck!

 

[luvmy3]

Nothing wrong with trying. However, If my house was on the market and someone asked for an appliance allowance. I would go with the no way I'm paying for someone else to get brand new appliances.

MTE. Unless I was in a state of desperation to sell my house, I wouldn't give allowances for cosmetic changes. Too many people have HGTV syndrome and think they deserve perfect everything when buying a house. If a buyer put in a lower offer to compensate for them having to purchase new appliances thats one thing, but I'd be totally turned off by someone asking me to help them afford them. If the house is listed by a realtor then the price most likely reflects the need for upgrades anyway.