Matt asked this question as we dug up the soggy grass in the front lawn to uncover a leak in the water main leading to our house.

Well, we got the house over another bidder who offered more than us because we went for a “conditions” approach. It was unlikely we were going to offer more money than any other bidders, so we made our offer only subject to financing and not subject to inspection. The sellers liked our conditions better and gave us the opportunity to match the other bidder’s price. We are beginning to see why they liked our conditions so much! We were ok with removing that condition because, 1) we could still get out of the offer if we really wanted to, using the financing condition, and 2) we’d be gutting the place anyway in a year or so.

But…in retrospect, we would have benefitted from getting the inspection anyway so we’d have a better idea what short term costs we’d be facing.