Resources for real estate brokers · 3 min read
Major or Minor Findings: How to Explain Them to a Client
The same report can be read as a disaster or as a list of normal maintenance. The difference often lies in how the broker helps the client go through it.
Start with the summary, not page one
Most reports start with a detailed description of the building, item by item. For a buyer, starting on page one means drowning in details before knowing what matters. Invite your client instead to read the summary of significant findings first, usually found at the beginning or end of the report.
This habit completely changes the reading experience. It's part of the broader approach presented in keeping a deal alive after an alarming report, and in our guide for real estate brokers.
The first family: safety
Safety-related findings come first, even when they're inexpensive: missing smoke or carbon monoxide alarms, guards that are too low, ungrounded outlets in a bathroom, a poorly installed space heater, signs of overheating in an electrical panel. Some can be fixed in a day; others require a professional.
Explain to the client that these findings aren't reasons to walk away, but priorities. They should be corrected soon after the purchase, and some can be the subject of a request to the seller.
Where children or elderly occupants will live in the house, these items take on extra weight, and it's worth saying so explicitly. The same missing guard means something different to a young family than to a couple without children.
The second family: significant short-term expenses
Next come items at the end of their life or failing that will be costly in the coming years: roof, French drain, foundation, original windows, heating system. This is the family that justifies a quote and sometimes a specialist's opinion.
It's also the one that most affects financing. A roof to redo or a drain to replace can weigh on the client's ability to pay, and the mortgage broker benefits from knowing early, as we explain in building condition and the mortgage appraisal.
The third and fourth families: planning and upkeep
The third family groups work that can be planned: siding to repaint in a few years, a water heater nearing the end of its life, masonry joints to redo. These deserve a place in a maintenance calendar, without urgency.
The fourth family, often the longest, covers routine maintenance: caulking, gutters to clean, grading to correct, filters to change. Reassure the client: these findings show the inspector did a thorough job, not that the house is in poor condition.
A simple exercise helps here: ask the client to count how many findings fall into each family. Seeing that forty of the fifty items are maintenance puts the report in perspective far better than any reassurance.
A concrete sorting example
Take a 1985 house whose report lists forty-eight findings. Two concern safety: no carbon monoxide alarm near the attached garage and a guard that's too low on the basement stairs. Three point to significant expenses: a roof at the end of its life, a French drain showing signs of clogging and original windows.
Eight findings are work to plan, such as a twelve-year-old water heater or brick joints to redo. The other thirty-five are routine maintenance. Presented this way, the report becomes a plan: two immediate corrections, three quotes to obtain and a maintenance calendar. The buyer knows exactly what to do, and what to negotiate.
Notice what this does to the conversation. Instead of debating whether the house is good or bad, the buyer and broker are discussing three specific items with real numbers attached, which is a conversation a seller can actually respond to.
Words that help, and words that hurt
Some words reassure without misleading: 'to plan', 'routine maintenance', 'to monitor'. Others worry needlessly or wrongly minimize: 'no big deal', 'everyone has that', 'that costs nothing'. The broker does well to stick to the report's wording and refer technical questions to the inspector.
Finally, remind the client that they can call the inspector to clarify a finding. A good inspector answers willingly. It's one of the criteria that guide our network; see our page for partner brokers.
