"I really don't think that buyers are more concerned about environmental or inspection issues, per se, than they were three years ago," said Myrna Malkin, an agent in Weichert Realtors' Fort Washington office. "But I do believe that because the market conditions are currently more favorable toward buyers, they are more likely to include these contingencies in their contract and to use the results of these inspections as tools for negotiating."
Yet Bari Shor, an agent with Prudential Fox & Roach in Center City, said the buyers she deals with are more concerned with health issues than with leverage.
"They are using what they see in the paper - increased inventory and mortgage issues - and not mold or lead paint as a bargaining tool," Shor said. "Because of these concerns, home inspections have become more intricate and difficult," which was also true during boom times.
"Even in those times," Shor said, "I'd never allow buyers to forgo a home inspection - and would make them sign their lives away if they were insistent."
Environmental issues like these have been a public focus for so long, said Noelle Barbone, director of Weichert's Delaware Valley operations, "that buyers have begun to become more comfortable with knowing that if they are present, most times the conditions have remedies, and if the price is right, they can handle the repairs."
Regardless of the condition of the market, environmental issues create problems for real estate agents and brokers, who are often pressed by buyers to offer advice in areas in which they have little or no expertise.
