Whittier, CA on Jan 19, 2012

roof

I have had a guy come out and said he can repair the damaged areas of my roof instead of puttin gon a whole new roof. I sold my house and there are some problems with the roof, but I never had any leaks. The home inpector said to the buyer that a roof is needed. But the other roofer said no, we can repair the old one, replace all the bad wood,etc and we will be fine. The other 2 roofing company's want to put on a roof. It is not cost effective for me for the sale of the house.

5 Comments

Woodbridge Environmental ... Colonia, NJ

Welcome to selling a house in a buyers market.
It is very common for home inspectors to call out a roof if its near its end of its life span. Even if patching is all that is needed to extend the life of it.
Most of the roofing companies do not want to become involved in providing a roof should their patch fail. They do not make a living fixing shingles their bread and butter is complete roofing ...»
systems.
If there is bad wood under the shingles then it has been leaking at least one time. The difficult part is for roofing contractor is to know when it leaked and when it did not. Whenever they see rotted wood under the shingles they assume the leak is active. This is another reason why they do not want to patch.
So you have a few options.
1. Patch the roof and get a warranty from the company that the roof will last for a few years. Then hope the buyer does not walk away. Which the current market the country is in it may happen.
2. Offer credit towards the roof at closing and let the new owners put on what ever roof they want. This will save sale. And you will not have to pay for a complete new roof out of your pocket until the house is sold.
Remember it is still your home. You can fix it anyway you like. But the buyer also can walk away if you replace it or not. My personal opinion would be to offer credit towards a new roof. But the credit will be only towards the value of patching plus a little bit more and see if they agree to this. Remember your only obligation should you agree to fix is to put on what ever roof you want. You do not have to put on a top end roof that of course they want you to do.
You also have to understand the buyer. They are going on the advice of both the inspector who did their evaluation. Their own ability to afford doing repairs after taking on a new loan. And their ability to negotiate the sale.

on Jan 19, 2012 · Like 2
Steve G Fort Collins, CO

I agree with Woodbridge. That was pretty much the deal we got when we bought our current house. We were pretty happy with it. It allowed us to get the roof we wanted, plus we waited another year, which meant letting the old, dying roof take the brunt of a nasty hailstorm.

on Jan 19, 2012 · Like 0
Valerie B Whittier, CA

I need a clarification about a response. I get the fact that putting a new roof on is there big money maker, but if the problem areas can be fixed, why not just do that? The roof never leaked at all, and it is getting old, but it's not in dire need for a new roof. The main problem is with the edges of the roof. But thanks for your input it helps
Valerie

on Jan 20, 2012 · Like 0
Ricardo B Alpine, TX

When we moved to the Atlanta area from Florida, we solved the "patch roof" vs "replace roof" issue to the satisfaction of the the proposed buyer, the mortgage company and inspectors on both sides by agreeing to set aside monies held by the mortgage company.
The deal was that if the patch did NOT fail, we'd get that money back. If it did fail, the amount set aside would go toward whatever the new homeowner needed to do to resolve an ongoing roof ...»
issue.
Of course that was before the upside down housing market came upon us. Many of us feel your pain on this situation...

on Jan 20, 2012 · Like 1
Woodbridge Environmental ... Colonia, NJ

Valerie even though a patch job will suffice the buyer will not be happy because it will not match the rest of the roof. It is a buyers market and they are using this advantage when asking for items to be repaired.
I just quoted someone that is in process of buying a home for a roof repair replacement. I walked the roof and only found about four or five shingles that could require repairs. But the ...»
inspection report stated roof is at its end of its life span and they should consider replacement. When I walked it I figured the rest of the roof had over five years left and perhaps more if they correct some ventilation concerns. But the buyer had nothing to say other then wanting a new roof. So that is what I quoted them rather then just the few hundred dollars it would truly cost to make it serviceable. So the deal fell through. Which was bad for both parties.

on Jan 20, 2012 · Like 1

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