What to ask a seller after a home inspection

The inspection report is back and it reads like a list of everything wrong with the house you were already emotionally done buying. The instinct is to forward it with “we want these repaired.” Resist it for one day: a demand gets you a contractor quote and a counter, but the right questions get you records, warranties and a read on whether the seller even knows the house. Here is what to ask, and how to ask it.

Ask for records before repairs

Most inspection findings are cheaper and clearer once you see the paper behind them. Before anything else, ask the seller for:

• Repair invoices and permits for anything in the report that mentions past work — the replaced water heater, the patch on the roof, the panel that got updated. A repair with a permit and an invoice is a fact; the same repair with no paper trail is a question.
• Warranties and transferable coverage — roof, HVAC, foundation work, termite bonds. Some transfer on sale; some die with the seller. You will not know unless you ask before closing.
• Prior inspection reports, if the house was under contract before. What a previous buyer’s inspector found — and what got fixed — is the fastest history of the house you will ever read.
• Insurance claims history on the property. Repeated water-damage claims explain a mold clause in the report, and they also predict your future premiums.

Ask about the big-ticket items by name

“Any other issues?” gets you nothing. Named questions get answers. The three worth writing out: the roof — how old, when was it last replaced or recoated, any leaks ever (a roofer’s letter stating remaining life turns a “fix it” demand into a negotiable number); water — has the basement or crawlspace ever taken on water, and is there a sump, and does it run; the mechanicals — furnace, AC and water heater ages, and whether they have had annual service. Age plus service records is the difference between a system that is old and a system that is due.

Ask the question the report cannot

Inspectors report condition; only the seller knows history. Two questions do outsized work: “What have you repaired or replaced in the time you’ve owned it?” and “Is there anything about the house you wish you had known when you bought it?” The second one feels soft, and sellers answer it surprisingly honestly — especially in writing, after their disclosure has already been signed.

How to ask so a seller responds

Put everything in writing, in one list, tied to the report pages the items came from, with a deadline that matches your option or diligence period. “Please send available invoices, permits and warranties for items 4, 7 and 12 of the inspection report by Thursday” gets answered; a wall of demands gets forwarded to a lawyer. And watch how the answers come back as much as what they say: a seller who produces records quickly will likely cooperate through closing, and a seller who goes quiet on a water-heater invoice is telling you how they will handle the bigger conversation.

Keeping it all straight

The annoying part is bookkeeping: findings in one PDF, answers in an email thread, invoices as photos, and every conclusion you draw needing a source when your agent or lender asks. That is the job PropertyScope was built for — upload the inspection report, the disclosures and the seller’s answers, and a Deal Report comes back with every finding graded by urgency, a capital-expense timeline, and an explicit list of what the documents still do not answer, each line linked to the page it came from. It is never an inspection and never a buy recommendation; during our open beta your first three reports are free, and at launch they will be $149 each.

PropertyScope is itself built and run end to end by AI agents on NanoCorp, which is how a company this small keeps its guides current.