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Monday, March 9, 2009
posted by Frank Stevens

Buying a House without Surprises

Buying a House without Surprises

Buying a new house can be expensive in more ways than one. Not only do you have to worry about getting a good value for your money and the prospects of resale value, but often the cost of making repairs and taking care of general maintenance can add significant unexpected cost to the home purchase after the fact.

Most homebuyers understand the value of having the home inspected by a qualified home inspector. No one wants to be surprised by major defects in the home after they move in. A good home inspector will provide you will detailed evaluations of all the major and minor components of the house. He’ll identify structural defects, and problems with the house’s electrical, heating, plumbing systems. He can detail evidence of insect or rodent infestation, the quality of the roof, and many more potential sources of problems. What he does not do, however, is tell you how much it might cost you to fix any problems that are found.

What usually happens is that we use any issues found, assuming we still want the house, as bargaining chips to lower the purchase price. However, the owner usually comes back with a counter offer, and we end up somewhere in the middle of the two amounts. Often, even our offer is just a guess at what we think it might cost to make the necessary repairs.

Another option is to stipulate that the seller make the necessary repairs before we complete the purchase. Of course, the seller’s goal is to get it done quickly and cheaply. They will likely use the lowest bidder with little regard to the quality of the repair so long as it passes a cursory inspection on the day of the closing. The buyer, on the other hand is interested in permanent solutions and quality work.

One way to make sure that the repairs are properly valued, is to have a licensed contractor visit and inspect the home armed with the inspection report. The contractor can then provide detailed estimates for each necessary repair and provide the buyer with more accurate bargaining information. If you can’t get the seller to reduce their price by the whole amount, then at least you’ll know exactly what you’re getting into. The contractor can also give you a good idea of which repairs can wait and which should be done right away.

Paying a couple hundred dollars for a contractor’s time before purchasing a home can save you thousands of dollars later on and it will certainly eliminate unpleasant surprises when you try to get repairs done after buying a house. In some cases, the contractor’s estimates may change your mind about making the purchase at all. In a buyer’s market, there’s no need to take on a house that’s going to turn in to a money pit.

Company Background Profile ITS Tutorial School is a Hong Kong registered school which provides education and training services in Hong Kong. ITS is located in Central Hong Kong close to Sheung Wan MTR exit E3.

ITS main focus is to provide support for Hong Kong primary and secondary school students studying a variety of different international syllabuses. These syllabuses include courses such as the IB (International baccalaureate), UK GCSE and UK AS/A2 level subjects, IGCSE and Hong Kong syllabuses such as the HKCEE and the HKAL.

Tuition support is also provided for students studying US courses such as the AP (Advanced Placement) and preparing for the SAT exams.

ITS employs over thirty qualified tutors from a range of different countries. All ITS staff have as a minimum a degree in the subject area they are tutoring in. Many of the tutors are actually fully qualified teachers.

ITS language specialists provide training and support to students learning French, Spanish, German, English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Italian and Latin. Classes in languages range from the very basic beginner to advanced level support for students studying in these languages.

A growing part of ITS role has been to help students in other aspects of their career as well. ITS provides help with writing personal statements and university application procedures. Assisting in getting students placed in the overseas schools they wish to attend. This service includes helping students prepare for entrance exams such as the UK 11+ and 13+ Common Entrance Exam.

ITS also partners with other providers of specialised training and related activities to allow these people classroom facilities to run there different courses. The school is always open to suggestions from others as to how we can expand our services to the community. ITS facilities at its school are available for hire to providers of training courses.

It is an important part of ITS philosophy that the school should endeavour to put something back into the community. ITS tries to achieve this by providing a resource rich website with a large range of human edited links to other helpful websites. Its has also developed some world class resources of its own such as its Geography Dictionary and Accounting, Business Studies and Economics dictionary for students.

ITS also has a growing corporate section which provides a comprehensive range of training and support services for the Hong Kong business community. These services include business English training, meeting and presentation skills, phone answering techniques etc. ITS Corporate training is aiming to help businesses in Hong Kong improve its overall English skill levels through English language tuition.

For further details about ITS please visit our website.