The buyer is now inspecting, financing and second-guessing. Your job is to make it easy, respond well to what comes back, and know the difference between a fair request and a renegotiation attempt.
You have an accepted offer, and it is worth being clear about what that means: the buyer has an exit and you do not. Until their conditions are removed, they can walk away and recover their deposit, while your home sits off the market.
This is the stretch where sellers get anxious, and reasonably so — you have almost certainly started planning around a sale that is not yet certain, and possibly bought something else.
The good news is that most deals do firm up, and the ones that do not usually fail for reasons that were visible earlier: a stretched buyer, a long condition period, no lender contact. The things that are within your control are straightforward: give access freely, respond promptly, and handle whatever the inspection turns up without either panicking or digging in.
A pre-approval assessed the buyer; final approval assesses your home as well, which usually means an appraisal. If the property appraises below the purchase price, the shortfall becomes cash the buyer has to find — and that is the single most common way a Calgary deal comes back to the table on price.
Expect an inspection within the first few days, typically two to three hours, often with the buyer present. If your home is a condo, the buyer is also reading the corporation’s documents, which you have supplied through us.
Make the home available, leave the lights on, ensure the panel, furnace, attic hatch, crawlspace and hot water tank are physically accessible, and be out. An inspector who cannot reach something notes it as inaccessible, which reads to a nervous buyer as an unknown — and unknowns become requests.
Most of this period is silence from your side. We stay in contact with the buyer’s agent and will tell you what we are hearing.
There is no pass or fail. A competent inspector on a well-maintained twenty-year-old Calgary home still produces pages of findings, most of them minor. If you have never read one, the first sight of it is alarming — and it is alarming for your buyer too, which is worth remembering when their response seems disproportionate.
Grading and drainage against the foundation. Missing GFCI outlets. Furnace age and service history. Roof age, and hail damage you may not have known about. Poly-B if the home is from 1978–1995. Aluminum wiring in 1960s and 1970s homes. Ice damming evidence in the attic. Efflorescence on basement walls. Most of it is normal for the age of the house.
If you dealt with the cheap, obvious items before listing, the report reads as a well-kept home with the usual age-related notes. If you did not, the same report reads as a list of neglect, and buyers price neglect into what they ask for.
Your instinct will be to argue with individual findings. Resist that. What matters is not the report — it is what the buyer asks for as a result of it.
A fair request concerns something genuinely significant that was not visible and not reflected in the price: a failed sewer line, a cracked heat exchanger, active water penetration, a safety defect. An opportunistic request is a long list of small maintenance items, or a demand for a discount because the furnace is fifteen years old on a fifteen-year-old house.
Do the repair. Offer a credit or price adjustment instead. Offer part of what was asked. Or decline and hold your price. All four are legitimate, and which is right depends on the finding, on your position, and on how much you need this particular buyer.
Doing work under time pressure while you are moving rarely goes well, and if the buyer dislikes the result you have inherited a second argument. A price adjustment closes the issue completely and lets the buyer arrange their own contractor to their own standard.
If your home attracted several offers and the market is moving, you can hold firm and mean it. If it sat for two months and this is your only buyer, that is a different calculation — and pretending otherwise is expensive. We will tell you honestly which situation you are in.
A buyer who accepted a price on a fifty-year-old home and then asks for a discount because it is a fifty-year-old home is renegotiating, not remedying. Conceding to that often invites a second round, because you have signalled that asking works.
A flat refusal can push a nervous buyer out. A response that acknowledges the finding, explains the context — the age was known, the price reflects it, here are the service records — and offers something small and specific usually holds the deal while holding the price.
If you hold and they walk, you return to market with days accumulated and a story to explain. Weigh the amount in dispute against that cost honestly. Sometimes $2,000 is worth conceding to protect a sale. Sometimes $2,000 is the opening bid of a buyer who will keep asking.
If the inspection uncovered something you knew about and did not disclose, that is a different situation with real legal implications, and it needs to be addressed properly rather than negotiated around. Tell us immediately if that is where you are.
If the buyer terminates properly under a condition, their deposit is returned and the contract ends. You are back on the market. It is disappointing, and it is not a disaster.
You have information you did not have before. If the inspection revealed something significant, you generally need to disclose it going forward — and you should address it. Fixing it properly and having the paperwork is a stronger position than hoping the next buyer’s inspector misses it. They will not.
Going straight back up unchanged invites the question of what went wrong. Better to fix what was found, refresh the photography if the season has moved, and re-enter with a clear answer — “the previous buyer’s financing fell through, the inspection items have been repaired, here are the receipts.” Buyers accept a good answer; they punish an evasive one.
The great majority of accepted offers complete. Preparation before listing, an offer chosen for strength rather than headline price, and a measured response to the inspection are what tilt the odds — and all three are things we work on with you.
Not yet. Until the buyer removes their conditions they can walk away and recover their deposit, while your home sits off the market. That asymmetry is what makes this period stressful for sellers. Most accepted offers do complete, and the ones that fail usually showed warning signs at the offer stage — a stretched buyer, a long condition window, or no evidence of lender contact.
Something, always — there is no pass or fail, and a thorough inspector produces pages of findings even on a well-maintained home. In Calgary expect grading and drainage notes, missing GFCI outlets, furnace and roof age, possible hail damage, Poly-B in homes from 1978 to 1995, aluminum wiring in 1960s and 1970s homes, and efflorescence on basement walls. Most of it is normal for the age of the house.
No. You have four options on any request: do the repair, offer a credit instead, offer part of what was asked, or decline and hold your price. A long list of minor maintenance items is usually a renegotiation rather than a genuine remedy request, and conceding to it often invites a second round because you have signalled that asking works.
A credit is usually cleaner. Repairs done under time pressure while you are packing rarely go well, and if the buyer dislikes the workmanship you have inherited a second argument on top of the first. A price adjustment closes the issue completely and lets the buyer use their own contractor to their own standard.
The lender lends against the appraised value, so the difference becomes cash the buyer must find on top of their down payment. Their options are to cover the gap, ask you to reduce the price, or terminate under their financing condition. It is the most common way a firm-looking Calgary deal comes back to the table, and it is more likely when the home sold above list in competition.
If they terminate properly under a condition, their deposit is returned and the contract ends. You are back on the market — disappointing but recoverable. Importantly, you now know what their inspection found, you may have disclosure obligations going forward, and you should fix it rather than hope the next inspector misses it. Relaunch with the repairs done, the receipts kept, and a clear honest explanation.
When the inspection report lands, we will go through it with you and give you an honest read on what is a genuine remedy, what is a renegotiation attempt, and exactly how strong your position is before you answer.
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