If you’re trying to understand what an Inspection Repair and Survey Addendum is, give yourself a pat on the back because you’ve probably just gotten a property under contract.
To put it simply, an Inspection Repair and Survey Addendum, or as we will refer to it from now on an IRSA, is a document that allows the Buyer to ask the Seller to complete a list of repairs before closing. Then it facilitates the conversation on the repairs to conclude with the final walk through on the day of closing. A buyer will have to accept the house in its current condition in order to buy it. They will sign the last page after walking through the house one last time and heading to the closing table.
If you’re a Seller, the fact of the matter is, your home is not perfect. Not because you didn’t take care of it, but rather the song of owning a home: the never-ending-to-do-list. You might have noticed the railing on the porch needed some work or needed to be fixed, but just never quite got around to it. When it comes time for an Inspection, the Inspector might list this in his report. There are a lot of things the Inspector will be reviewing in your house. All of the nooks, corners and crannies of the home will be examined. Anything you are aware of will need to be put in the Seller’s Property Disclosure, though, there could be some things that show up in the Inspection Report that you were not aware of.
If you are a Buyer, you are responsible for hiring the Inspector. In Arkansas this needs to be done as soon as the property is under contract because the IRSA will need to be completed, signed and delivered to the listing agent within 10 days. When the inspector returns an Inspection Report, you and your agent will go over the results. There may be items you don’t care about, items you can complete easily on your own, items you don’t trust the Seller to do to your satisfaction, and items you want resolved before you buy the house. Once you feel comfortable with the repairs you’ve decided to list in the IRSA, it will be presented to the Listing Agent by your agent.
There may be some back and forth on what repairs will be made and how they will be repaired. This can be completed by the seller themselves or a hired subcontractor. You want it done a certain way you need to make that clear when the list of repairs is submitted in writing.
Once both parties have come to a mutual agreement in the IRSA, the Real Estate transaction can proceed.
So a message to the Sellers & Buyers in a Real Estate Transaction:
Don’t be discouraged, there is no such thing as perfect. There will always be a need for some elbow grease here and there but that does not mean your house is not worth selling, or that the home is not worth buying!
If you have any questions on how to get to this point in a transaction, call me, Jill Bell. I’d love to help you out!
