Repairs or Credits? What I Actually Recommend to Sellers.

Almost every sale reaches the same fork in the road. The buyer's inspection comes back, they ask you to address some of it, and now you have to decide: do you make the repairs yourself, or offer a credit and let the buyer handle it after closing? I have sat on this decision with a lot of sellers, and because I spent fifteen years in construction, I tend to see it differently than most agents. Here is how I actually think it through.

First, separate the list into three buckets

Before you decide anything, sort the buyer's requests into safety, function, and cosmetic. Safety items like electrical hazards, a gas issue, or a structural concern are non-negotiable, someone has to deal with them, and often you are better off doing so. Functional items, a failing water heater or an active leak, are next. Cosmetic items, paint and finishes, are usually the easiest to hand off as a credit. Sorting the list first keeps the conversation calm and keeps you from overreacting to a scary-looking report.

When to make the repair yourself

• Safety issues. Electrical problems, gas concerns, and structural items. Buyers and their lenders take these seriously, and an unaddressed safety item can kill a deal or an appraisal.
• Small, cheap fixes. If a handyman can knock it out in a day, it is often not worth negotiating over.
• Things that scare buyers more than they cost. An active leak or evidence of pests reads as alarming. If a $500 repair removes a fear a buyer values at $2,000, do the $500 repair.
• Anything that could resurface at appraisal. Some conditions the appraiser will flag as required repairs before the loan funds. Better to handle those on your terms.

When to offer a credit instead

• The buyer wants control. For anything where quality and contractor choice matter, many buyers would rather get a credit and hire their own person.
• Cosmetic work. Paint, flooring, and fixtures are personal. A credit lets the buyer do it their way.
• Timing is tight. If doing the repair would push the closing, a credit keeps the deal on schedule.
• Bigger projects. For larger work, a credit hands off the coordination and the risk.

How a credit actually works

A credit reduces what the buyer brings to closing. If the price is $900,000 and you give a $10,000 credit, the buyer brings $10,000 less to the table. It is clean, and it often costs you less than the buyer's worst-case mental estimate of the repair. One caution: lenders cap how large a seller credit can be, often around a few percent of the purchase price, so very large credits sometimes need to be restructured.

Where my construction background changes the math

This is the part most sellers do not have access to. When a repair request comes in, I can usually tell you what the work truly costs versus what the buyer thinks it costs, and that gap is where you save money. A buyer might ask for a $6,000 credit for something I know a good contractor will do properly for $2,500. Armed with a real quote, you can counter with confidence instead of guessing. I always tell sellers to get an actual quote before responding, because a number on paper beats a fear every time.

The bottom line

There is no universal right answer, only the right answer for this house, this buyer, and this moment in the sale. Make the repairs that protect the deal and calm real fears, offer credits where the buyer wants control or timing is tight, and never respond to a repair request without a real number in hand. If you want, I will help you price the list and decide item by item, so you protect both the sale and your net.