Robt -
To clarify. NOTHING we do is a MUST repair. Thats not your call or mine. I tell a customer what I THINK is significant or not and after that its their call to negotiate or walk.
Thats always up to our customer to decide whats a Hill to DIE On, and whats not. I often have used house commissioned real estate sales people try to get me to tell a buyer what HAS to be repaired and what DOES NOT have to be repaired. They make these whishy little comments like;
“Mr Inspector, thats not a really BIG deal is it”? OR “Mr Inspector, isn’t that something the average buyer could fix themselves”? OR “Mr Inspector, would’t you say lots of houses in this age bracket have this wrong and its never killed anybody”?
My standard comment is along the lines of: “Bambi, I’m not the buyer, you & I are not gonna live here - they are, and its the buyers money buying the home, … So why don’t we ask them”?
Whenever you hear a real estate agent talk like that I usually assume they’ve been working with a realtor friendly home inspector that trys to help them sell the house RATHER than letting the buyers decide whats / what