if you haven't closed yet, I would ask seller to have tears in wrapping repaired and sealed as neat as possible...anything else at this late date would be unreasonable...you should inspect following the repair.

IMO

Thanks. Seller is not doing anything else to repair. They're out of money and time, we need to come up with a dollar amount. Theyre also not wanting us to come into the house anymore until after we close, which I why I'm just looking for advice via pictures. :)

Flexible ducting with R8 insulation cost about $2 per foot in Home Depot if you replace it yourself. You may be able to repair the problems with tape. If you had to hire someone it is going to be in the hundreds of dollars depending how much has to be replaced.

I see the dirty pink insulation. That means there is air leakage from either the duct or coming from attic floor. The areas are large so it is likely the duct work. All the duct work should be inspected and replaced as needed.

You best course of action is to ask for some money at the closing. Do you have any estimates? Get as much money as the seller is willing to pay and put that towards fixing the duct work. The dirty insulation is good evidence of problems.

Good luck.

Thank you. That's exactly what we're trying to do, figure out what'll cost, and ask for a credit at closing. We have one kinda sort guesstimate, based on the size of the house and photos, he said $1800 or less to redo all the ducts. He's a licensed Hvac person, but I wanted to be sure.

I would pay $1800 or less for all new ducts before I'd pay $500 for a tape job. Doesn't sound like enough to lose sleep over. Someone tell me how this "asking for money and credit at closeing" works. I've never heard of going to closeing still trying to negotiate terms. Sound's like a quick way of getting sued for breach of contract. No wonder sellers don't want you back in the house.

They didn't like that the home inspection brought up a lot of safety problems. They have no money to do the repairs, but they have some equity, so their offer was for us to come up with a dollar amount to fix the repairs. But they don't want us to bring any more people in to see the problems.

Legally we are still allowed to be doing home inspections, it's still early enough for us to legally back out, but we're trying to be respectful, it's an older person who will be in foreclosure if they don't sell soon. Closing isn't for some weeks yet.

@klem they don't have any money for repairs, so they'll give us some of their profits at closing. It seems to be a pretty common thing here. Seller covers some closing costs or whatever. We don't need help with closing costs but we have to figure out a dollar amount to ask for. Kinda hard when they get upset if we ask to bring someone in.

If there is a new top of the line HVAC system, and it was installed and sized properly, then I agree with klem1 you should not get upset with the duct work in the attic. The big ticket items have been replaced. Come to an reasonable agreement for the duct work repairs.

Look into the HVAC warranty. Most manufacturers require the equipment to be registered in order to get the 10 year parts warranty, otherwise it defaults to 5 years. The warranty is usually for the original owner however some companies like Carrier allow for a warranty transfer to the new owner for a small processing fee. Also find out if the installer is providing a one year labor warranty.

Ask for $2,000 credit and make a note to never use any of the bottom feeding realestate companies involved in this sale. I hear complaints about employees at McDonalds and WalMart all the time, they are no worse than realestate sales people when it come's to serving customer needs.

Steiger S, I think you're a very nice and thoughtful person, but you shouldn't feel responsible to cover problems the sellers ignored or didn't know about and fix. A thoughtful selling agent gets inspections done, etc, in advance, before the house is on the market, so that potential buyers' concerns can be thought through before they become an issue for the deal.

If (for illustration) the seller has $15000 of equity in the house but the house has problems needing $20,000 of repair, there is no profit element. They can try to hold on to their illusory $15K as tightly as they wish - if you don't try to negotiate a compromise, you've allowed their negligence to pay off FOR THEM.

Of course they're agitated by your insistence on understanding what's needed to be done. They're trying to keep dollars that they really aren't entitled to and the best way to do that is to stonewall you.

Good luck.

Get the $1800 non-binding guesstimate in writing and ask for that at closing to replace to torn ductwork.

Thank you all for your advice!! :)

There's a lot more equity than that, this is SoCal. :D it's an elderly person, we knew the house had some minor issues, found more at home inspection, and seller is just done with all of it. I think she doesn't want to admit she's going to lose her house. The realtor has been trying to get the seller to do things, she suggested home inspections before they listed, The house is huge, on a huge lot, has a new roof, the new Hvac etc, the housing market here is ridiculously competitive, my current house had 3 full price offers in 24 hours. So it's easier to get into a house that's priced correctly for the known problems, with a kooky seller, than to compete with 50 people for a more expensive house that's perfect. So we're just trying to make it all work. In a year we'll have done all the known necessary repairs, we have savings for any unknowns that pop up, I'm just struggling with getting us to the closing, Ha. And I think the sellers realtor is ready to throw her out the window.

I'm in coastal California and am all too familiar with crazy real estate times. My numbers were hypothetical to illustrate the point.

If you're a person with any kind of business/financial knowledge or experience, you've found that often the biggest frustration in buying/selling houses is having to deal with people who DON'T share your level of knowledge and understanding. That often includes the real estate agents.

If you're comfortable you've had enough experts identify the added bucks you'll need to spend after closing, comfortable that you've done all you can to negotiate with the seller, and are willing to buy it with these known "needs" to take care of, then it's an unemotional decision you have to have to make. Move forward or look elsewhere.