KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Tips and Strategies for Salvaging Your Transaction After a Bad Home Inspection

Episode Date: January 4, 2026

Welcome back to the high-performance agent podcast. I'm your host, Tina Belavow. And today, I want to talk with you about salvaging your deal after a bad home inspection. Yay. First of all, is there anything worse in real estate than having a terrible home inspection? Whether you're the buyer's agent and your client is absolutely terrified and overwhelmed, or I think this is actually worse when you're on the listing side and you get the enormous punch list of repairs that you have to research and you know you're going to have to deal with it and you know your seller is going to die when they see it and you've got to figure it all out. So it just gives me heartburn to even think about. It is definitely in my like top three least favorite things about selling real estate. And you know, this is sort of like not, this hasn't felt like the topic of the moment in a way. Depending on where you are in the country or in the world, I'm in Baltimore, Maryland, just as a reminder, you know, depending on how your market's been, over the last three years, basically, since the pandemic start.

Home inspections have been less of a central issue in a lot of our transactions. We've had more deals than ever that were completely inspection-free, which was really mind-blowing to me at first. Now I've gotten completely used to it. Or we had a lot of like as is or understanding that there would be no repairs and just checking for major issues and all of that to some degree. and we are back to having more of our listings be inspected and more of our buyers asking for repairs as we've gotten back into spring. Things have gotten crazy again. But we've definitely seen more of the

old dynamics. And I recently had a conversation with one of my team members that inspired today's episode. So thank you, Bethany. And I will say, like, just a little bit of my backstory, if you don't know much about me yet. I've been in the business since 2004. And I really built the core of my business in the trenches through the like 2008 through 2012 recession. And that was a time where things were really hairy because it was a total buyer's market. And it was a time where home values were going down. Buyers were getting cold feet. It was totally customary to do an inspection and send over an enormous punch list of stuff to do, kind of be demanding. And it was one of the most, like I will say like one of the most unpleasant learning curves of my career. And maybe you're in like some

sweet market where everything's new and like really lovely. But in Baltimore, in like Baltimore city, the homes were built in like 1900. Even like the parts of the suburbs that I sell in were, you know, developed in the 60s and 70s. So I would just say like it's never been an easy thing and where I'm not dealing with a ton of new construction. That's for sure. So I just remember there was a point in my business where I was having deals fall through way more frequently than was tolerable or acceptable to me because of home inspections. At the time, a lot of it was on the buyer side. And then when I started focusing really heavily on listings at my peak, I was selling like 80 to 90 listings a year. And then I was on the whole other side of the equation of keeping my deals together, creating

solutions to problems and making sure that my clients, whether I was representing the buyer or the seller, were of course very well cared for, advised, properly represented, and that I was looking out for them and making sure they understood the implications of everything that was happening. So yeah, we just recently had like a really hairy home inspection request on a listing of ours and it kind of just brought back to the front of my mind all of the things that I've learned over the years to keep my deals together and do right by my clients and set proper expectations from the beginning. So I like basically before recording this, I wrote down all of the things that came to mind for me. And then I ended up bucketing them into kind of three main areas.

The first is mindset. So when your inspection process is getting rough, how can you manage your own mindset and then the mindset of your clients and perhaps the agent on the other side? The second thing would be my best practices for communication and expectation setting because I came to understand that an ounce of prevention with what was going to come down the pike, I would always tell clients as soon as we were under contract, especially on the listing side, like congratulations, just so you know, we're done round one of negotiations, there will be around two. And just like prepping people that like it's not over, it's not quite smooth sailing yet, more

is coming and I think like any human being when I know that something's coming I am I don't have to deal with feeling blindsided surprised hoodwitting to whatever fill in the blank whatever words you want to use and it's at least less of perhaps an emotional reaction so that is where expectation setting and good communication is everything and then the third bucket is I'll give you some of my favorite tactics to problem solve and like really get your deals across the finish line so we'll start with mindset so we all know, like if you've been selling real estate for even a minute, you know it's emotional. It's scary. Money brings up all kinds of understandable feelings for people. So the first mindset tip I will give you or remind you of is it's your job. I'll speak for myself. It's my job to be the adult in the room.

And I think about this a lot as I'm learning how to parent a toddler. My son is only 21 months right now, so it's not like I have a lot of wisdom to share. But like step one is just to validate their emotions and like however they feel is how they feel and I need to be okay with how my client feels because if I'm going to like react to their reaction it is just a title wave of first of all not super professional and second of all just not like productive so like the biggest thing is however they feel I think it's important to validate and let them know that they are heard and understood before you start to logic them I had such a good laugh with my husband over the weekend. I said we were fighting. He was like, no, we're just arguing. But we

were heatedly debating something. And then later when we were like apologizing to each other, I was like, you were just logicking me when I was emotional. Like you don't bring the logic when I'm still emotional. Like wrong timing. And we had to laugh about it. But I think that is like the core of not just like communication, but like having like real relationships with people is like like to be willing to hear their emotions and and know that and have them know that you understand and that you care because if you betray their emotional trust in you at this stage in the process, it is so hard to problem solve because they might start to wonder whose side are you on really and you know, you don't care how I feel anyway or you just want the commission, you just want

to get the deal done, you just don't want to start over and find me a new house. I'm sure you could also fill in some other blanks. But I think it's all about trust and rapport first and foremost. Then you get to become the problem solver and validating someone's emotions can sometimes take two seconds. Sometimes it takes a lot longer. The point is to go there first and then go into problem solving mode because as the agents, we are hired to solve these exact types of problems for the layman who doesn't deal with this every day. They don't understand the nuance of repairs. They may not even understand words and phrases in the inspection report or the repair request. They certainly generally don't tend to have the kind of connections we have as

realtors having contractors and names for this and that. So for them, they see a list of items and it's a terrifying problem. For us, it's like, oh, I hate this, but I've been here a thousand times and I have resources for this and I can see through that and I already can pick this apart. So taking on that you're the problem solver and letting your client know that like, I'm going to solve this for you or with you. I'm here for you. I've got this. And that's really kind of the next piece I want to say is like your mindset will be contagious to your client. So there is such an important element here of striking both empathy and confidence being solution focused. And I think one of the things that I learned as I built confidence because I just I feel like you don't have confidence until you have

it and you just build confidence by I always love to say like you build self-esteem by doing a steamable acts. I build confidence by just taking the action and figuring it out. So, you know, that confidence led me to be the driving force towards progress. And I really don't let my clients throw their hands up. Like, I don't let them give up. Or even if they give up, I don't give up. And I keep problem solving. I keep researching or getting other estimates or talking with the other side because most of the time people go under contract with each other because they do want the deal. they do want to see a way through, even if it's hard for them to see at the outset. So remembering that your mindset's going to be contagious is important.

We get the chance to set the tone and then also set the tone that there will be some back and forth and to just see the process through, take it a step at a time, be the clinical professional. And I will say if you get triggered by anything, by them, by the other side, by the findings, by a comment someone makes about you, your client is going to take all of you. their cues from you. So I feel like managing your reaction with any difficult aspect of a negotiation in real estate is so important and not making it about the other person. I find that even like if I have a client who's like, oh, man, that agent on the other side is really tough. It's that same fine line

of like maybe validating. I know. I know how you feel it's tough. But like devolving into character assassination of the other side, like it's so unproductive. So just kind of staying focused on the task at hand, but acknowledging how they feel, I mean, I'm kind of a broken record here. I found that that is really, really important. And then once I can move them from emotion to logic, we can really get into the solutions. One other just mindset thought is to just one thing in the beginning with selling houses is I feel like it's such an emotional roller coaster, a real estate roller coaster. And it comes back to what I said at the beginning. Like nobody likes to be surprised or blindsided. So one of my things,

is I expect every deal to have inspection issues. That way, I'm not surprised. And I prepare my client for the same so that they're not surprised. And then upset and projecting that onto me, it's just part of the process. It's round two of the negotiations. And then when it isn't a big hassle, it's a pleasant surprise. So those are my key mindset tips. And the last thing I would leave you with is don't present the findings to your client

until you've handled your own reaction if you've had one. And I would say this about anything. Don't present a terrible contract when you're still having a moment, whatever the case may be. I think one of the hardest things about being a real estate agent is we get these like texts and emails and voicemails and calls. And we just get like random like bad news or surprises or under appraisals. Like it just kind of comes out of nowhere. And, you know, sometimes I'm just like chill in enjoying my Sunday afternoon. And then there's a little real estate bomb kind of dropped in my lap. I'm not a big believer in doing anything at night, A, for like boundaries and personal sanity

unless, like, time is really, really of the essence. But B, like, I'm at my worst. And I'm not like a morning person per se, but by the end of the day, I'm the most tired. I'm the most worn down from everything that's already, you know, maybe not gone as easily or beautifully as I would have hoped. So I find that everything, I have better perspective in the morning. So don't, like, I think it can be easy to have this sense of urgency to just deal with things. But on the flip side, just picking timing is wise. So that is my thought on like mindset. It's sort of like handling yourself, handling the other side and like maintaining this sort of empathy, confidence combination. And then from there, there are some like communication and expectation setting tips.

I have a lot of thoughts on the seller side specifically. But I will say the biggest thing I learned with expectation with buyers was I just became better and better at showings about pointing out things that I knew were going to come up. And this comes with experience, right? You go to lots of inspections. You learn about all the things from like noticing when outlets don't have a third prong that they're not grounded. And like this is like a big thing in like Baltimore City, like electrical that's like really

old. And like flagging things to people before you go under contract and then edge. educating and explaining and giving context. Because I think one of the things that blows my mind that like I see it happen over and over again, but like is just such a phenomenon with buyers is when when people are scared, they just assume the worst case. Like they will see the broken out. They will see the they will find out that their outlets are not grounded and assign a $10,000 price tag to it in their head like, oh my God. Now some people are savvy and you know, DIY and maybe not like worst case scenario thinkers, but for a lot of people, it's just not their wheelhouse.

It's not their comfort zone. So they're going to kind of assume the worst. And it's our job to educate them, not outside the boundaries of like your knowledge base or your real estate license, but just really helping people understand what they're getting into. Then when the inspection comes, and you've really, you know, obviously you're never going to catch everything. An inspector catches, but like you've really flagged things and educated them. People are so grateful. they're like, wow, like she or he really, really looked out for me. So that's what I would say started to really make the difference with the buyer side of my inspections was I just had to get more skilled in showings, education, expectation

setting, learning how to articulate and explain things to people and becoming a serious expert on just about everything with houses and all the components of systems and all of that. So that comes with time, but I think taking on, this is just one woman's opinion, but taking on that like that's my responsibility and that's the kind of highly like educated, informative professional that I want to be and not abdicating that responsibility. So that's what I would say would be my biggest tip on the buyer side is to consciously work on your skill set and your communication around how it's all going to go. what's going to maybe be found, helping them understand that you're not an inspector,

but you're here to really give them the preview of what could come, and then how the process is going to go, and what's typical to ask for and what isn't, what the contract allows, and what it doesn't. On the flip side, once I started doing a lot of listing work, I noticed a phenomenon where my sellers were outraged to receive the repair request list because they hadn't, they first of all like back to what I've already said like they you know maybe hadn't like mentally planned for it but they also hadn't budgeted for it and I wish I could remember who to give credit to for this concept but someone just told me oh I always tell my sellers to budget 1% of the sale price at the listing appointment and I include it in my net sheet and I was like

oh so this might be your like tactic to just to like you could just stop listening to the podcast right now that was a game changer for me. I, and 1% may not be the right percentage for your market or your price point or the kind of housing stock. So think about that. But in my experience, if I was selling like back at this point, like my average sale price was like 300,000, it's a lot higher now, thanks to my work towards building my luxury portfolio and also the market increasing. But back then, that was my average. So there was a line item there that they should expect that they're probably going to spend about 3,000. thousand dollars on a repair and that was part of my conversation at the time of the listing saying

here are all the things realistically that are going to come down the pike it's my job to negotiate this number down for you to the best of my ability but at the end of the day if there's an issue with your house that is a medium issue or a bunch of small ones it's probably going to add up to this number and if there's a huge issue that you're not aware of or you're not thinking to tell me of right now you know something way more significant like a full roof replacement or brand new HVAC it's going to be more but it just set the tone from the beginning that there were going to be expenses and for them to be mentally and financially prepared for it to have budgeted for it to be good with it and then again whenever I could keep it under that 1% later

you better believe I would point it out to them but expectations are everything so that's probably my favorite tip of how to get ahead of it and then again like I already said earlier on is just always reiterating, okay, round two is coming. We've still got to get through the inspection. Yay, we're under contract. And yes, let's celebrate. We're all going to celebrate. It's the biggest milestone, but round two is coming. The second thing is just kind of hand in hand with that. Similarly to how I, you know, learn to show buyers was at the listing appointment. Just point out what is likely to arise in a home inspection. And of course, advise the clients on things that make sense to deal with before listing. And then which ones, in your professional opinion,

might be better to wait and see. And again, some education on the pros and cons of basically how much money you dump into a house before you've even gotten to that point, depending on the house, the client, their finances, the heat of the market or lack thereof. So that is, again, some expertise in professional judgment. But just bringing things to people's attention for them to be aware of is generally something that is very, very much. appreciated and goes a long way to combat at least the surprise factor down the pike. So those would be my buyer and seller specific tips. My biggest communication tip overall is that anytime big emotions are at risk of coming up, whether they're going to ruin your deal

or just make everything harder, I implore you. And believe me, I love text messaging. I live for texting and email. Not too much email, but like, don't call me. Like, definitely text or email me first. But at the end of the day, when it comes to emotion and rapport and trust, actual voice to voice phone calls are so critical. So when I get the terrible repair request, you better believe I am not dumping that in my client's lap for them to open a little real estate bomb out of nowhere when they're in the middle of like just sitting down to eat dinner with their family or you know about to get in their car and drive somewhere and do something fun like throwing like a turd in the swimming pool I hate to you know use that beautiful visual but like that's what we're doing when we're bringing bad news to our clients so I think it is just so critical to have conversations because that is where we get the opportunity to manage rapport to make sure that the tone they hear is the tone we're actually. communicating, and to make sure that you're clearly communicating what these items are and how you're going to help them solve the problem and get a sense that they kind of understand

depending on the scope of the kind of news that you're giving them. So just don't dump bad news on your clients in writing and expect it to go well. Now, some people just don't want to talk on the phone. I get that. But even those types of clients, I will send them a note. and be like, listen, I just got the home inspection repair request list. It's lengthy. I think it's better for us to talk through. Can you make time for a call? And if someone says no, like, please, you know, X, Y, Z, then fine. And then I will make sure to give them a really good written recap of what it is they're looking at and how I'm going to deal with it. But dumping bad news is never the pro move. It's sometimes the easier, softer way to not have to deal with someone's reaction or not have it jack up.

your schedule in the middle of what you're doing. So that's where I say, well, maybe you just need to go to sleep and do it tomorrow or set aside a time where it's not interfering with something else you needed to be doing. So those are my thoughts on communication. And then we're going to wrap up with like some specific tactics of like, okay, you've this like long list of problems. How are you going to figure it out? On the buyer side, you know, we're dealing with overwhelm in these scenarios, whoever you might be representing. So on the buyer side, what I've learned to do is ask them to give me everything they want repaired that they think they want. And then to put it in order of priority privately between me and them. I may not

present it that way strategically, depending on all of the variables that go into these kinds of things. But I have them give me their priority. And what that does is it does help them move from emotion into logic and start to figure out what their priorities are. are, which then makes it easier for us to problem solve in a way that will align with their goals. And then what I tend to do is this is just like a pet peeve, and I'm sure people listening, some of you will laugh at this, is like, I make sure that I take whatever wild mess they give me and I make it as organized, clear, and concise as possible. I also try and bundle like items together.

So if there's four plumbing things, I put them all in the plumbing category. I don't, you know, send a 20 item list where four of them were plumbing. and in the middle was the HVAC and like it's so annoying as the listing agent to get disorganized information. It's one more thing you have to do on top of everything that then goes from there with presenting to your client and getting estimates and whatever the case may be, assuming you're in a market where people make repairs. I know every market is so different. It kind of blows my mind. And on the flip side, same thing with the sellers is I say be the organized one so your seller doesn't have to. They are hiring us to figure it out and solve

the problems and create the solutions. So one of my other little systems is, I guess this is the second time I'm bringing up spreadsheets today. So you can imagine I do like spreadsheets when they serve my goals. I make a spreadsheet. And I'm talking about when you get something that's kind of messy. It's a whole bunch of stuff. It's not just one or two clear cut things. I make a spreadsheet with each line item. And I have a template for this. I break it down by like category. Again, is it plumbing, electric, a general contractor, whatever the case may be. And then I start to plug in, who am I going to call for an estimate? When can they be there? And then there's a spot for me to accrue all the estimates. And then most of the time, I'll share that out with my client at whatever

time is most appropriate. So they can, again, see the facts and the logic and de-escalate their emotions around it. So I just let my client know, listen, I'm going to manage all of this with your blessing. I will get all of the estimates. I have people for these things. I'm going to bring you the solutions. And then when we have good information, good reliable, clear information, we will decide together what you want and then I will go get it for you. And then people just go, okay, okay, that sounds good. So that's really where I get to work, especially on the listing side, is like I try to get as creative and proactive as possible to create as many ideas and solutions as I can. So ideas besides just getting an estimate for something would include

exploring a home warranty, bringing back contractors who did prior work where issues have been found if that's an option. Any time I have a really pricey item, I try to get two to three estimates. It's, of course, critical to have a reasonable go-to licensed contractor who can bid on a laundry list of items. That's like a realtor's best friend as far as resources. Maybe the seller does have contracting connections they can leverage. Maybe they have a contractor in their family that would give them a good deal. Maybe they're handy and there's a few things they could DIY and that would be okay with the other side and okay with whatever restrictions you have in your city or state about how these things are handled. But it's really like, okay, here are all the ways we could

tackle this. And then I move really quickly to get estimates scheduled. And I just take charge of the process. One of my favorite sayings a mentor would say to me years ago, he's like, no one's coming to save you. What are you going to do? And with these kind of situations, like no one's going to figure it out for us. So we've just got to figure it out. Then once we have all those facts, you know, maybe we're having a lot of trouble negotiating what needs to happen next. Then that's where it kind of comes back more to communication as opposed to a tactic. But helping your client understand the ramifications of letting the deal die, not from a threatening place.

That is such a way to, again, destroy any trust and rapport. But on the seller side, like where I am in the state of Maryland, if a seller becomes aware of latent defects, that's like our industry or like our term here, if they become aware of property defects, like, we have to disclose them to the next buyer. So that's a conversation I have when they're like, well, let's just put it back on the market. And then I help them understand that coming back on the market can be very stigmatic unless you're in a really, really hot market. But even then, everyone goes, well, what happened? And can I see the inspection report? And here we are with the same exact facts and issues that we have with the last buyer. And then on the buyer side,

generally they can get out depending on the way contracts are written in your market. And I just help them look at. If you have to find another house, do inspections over again, and depending on how many inspections you've done, it could be $1,000 if you did radon and this and that and the other thing. Maybe they already paid for an appraisal. So sometimes there's just a little bit of a cost benefit analysis, looking at the other available inventory and just figuring out sunk costs versus like just letting the sunk costs go and starting over again versus dancing with the devil and saying, you know what, there are more issues with this house than we hoped. It's a bummer. However, if we were to look at our options back on the market, what makes sense? And then from there,

you know, you've got to let your client make the decision. You don't want to take responsibility for this. Don't let them put it on you. But I do believe in giving them a cooling off period if time allows to have cooler heads prevail, sleeping on it, letting a day or two pass. I know that when I have a little problem that's kind of like eating away in the back of my mind, like I'll start to look for solutions and it could be a day later where I'm like, oh my gosh, I completely forgot that I know this person who could probably do that for a way better deal. And so time is a beautiful thing. We don't always have the luxury of time in real estate transactions. But when we do, it is amazing. So those are my tips for you from ranging from mindset to communication and

expectation setting all the way to like specific things that you can do and say, I will leave you with just like a couple bonus tips, when it feels like your client is just being really unreasonable. Number one, it helps to gently remind them of any terms in your contract that you might have ideally previously mentioned, like when you were writing the offer, going under contract, like in our market, we really help people distinguish that cosmetics and regular maintenance items are not included. So just recently we had a client who wanted the seller to paint the house as part of the home inspection, and we just had to kind of remind them, because it's very overwhelming to buy a house. You're told a thousand things by many different people. You can't remember it all.

So again, don't be annoyed with your clients when they can't remember. It's impossible for their brains to retain everything that was discussed. So that's the number one thing. Again, getting people, especially the by side, to put their concerns in order of priority so you can structure the deal to align with their ideal outcome is amazing. So that is my second tip. And then my third is some of my favorite words. I will throw some serious credit to the Bafini coaching system back in the day. I think it was Joe Nigo. If anyone knows about Joe, I'm throwing it back. He had this thing called words to win with. And this must have deeply resonated me at the time because I didn't have these words like at the ready in my head. But he really recommended using words like this would be a reasonable request.

that maybe wouldn't be so reasonable. So that's my first favorite word. Second word is fair. Third is typical. And fourth would be normal. So helping people understand, you know what, this is a really normal part of the process. And, you know, just X, Y, and Z. I could script this for a long time. That would probably be a fun podcast to do with like an interview. So maybe I'll do that at some point down the road. But just helping people understand when things are reasonable or not, fair or not, typical, normal. it can kind of just like de-escalate that emotion. And I've held on to that for a really long time. And my favorite tip, which I kind of already said, but I'll just say it more clearly, when possible, have them sleep on it. If you have time contractually, I find like giving people permission to process,

they, again, it increases the trust. It's in everyone's best interest. Just sleep on it. Why don't I call you tomorrow? Does 10 a.m. work, you know, or why don't I email you tomorrow with some some additional ideas. I'm going to work on this for you. Let's touch base at noon and just set a timeline. Keep things moving forward in a non-pressurey way. Let your client know that you've got it and they can trust you and they will be so grateful to you. So that concludes today's podcast. I would love to hear from you on this one. So a couple things. If you haven't followed me on Instagram yet, come find me. My profile is at Tina Bellevaux. I also run a really awesome Facebook group for ambitious real estate agents. It's in the show notes if you want to check the link

or you can just go to Facebook and search Relationship Driven Real Estate with Tina Beliveau and my group should pop up. Come in there and just join the discussion. I'd love to hear from you. What are you doing to solve tricky inspections or just tricky communication issues overall? We'd love to hear from you and I will talk to you soon.