This, That, and the Other

“It’s not my job as the home inspector to persuade you one way or the other about buying this house,” the home inspector said, “but this, in my professional opinion, is not a quality flip.”

John and his wife, Martha, fell in love with the house and the news from the inspector was disappointing. “What makes you say that?” John asked.

“First of all,” the inspector said, “I went down into the crawl space under the first floor and the underpinnings are insufficient, in other words, too weak to accommodate a two story home. That leads me to believe that when the construction permits were approved, that approval was based upon a single-story structure.

The inspector continued, “The cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms are cheap, builder grade materials. They are not real wood, but a wood veneer over particleboard. Similarly, the hardwood floors are not, in fact, hardwood. They are a much cheaper laminate flooring.”

John, who was under contract to purchase the house for more than a million dollars, felt as if his knees would start to buckle. Martha looked at John and said, “I told that the flipper was a snake, a goddam reptile, and that we should never have made an offer on this house.”

John looked at the inspector and asked, “What are our options?”

“You have a narrow window of opportunity,” the inspector said. “Based upon my professional experience, I construe that you can go back to the sellers and reduce your offer by an amount equal to the work required to address the issues. Because you have an inspection contingency in your purchase agreement, if the seller refuses, you can rescind your offer to purchase and get your deposit back.”

“John, we need to rescind the offer and get our money back. Period,” Martha said. “I’m not moving into that house under any circumstances. Period.”

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Written for these daily prompts: Word of the Day Challenge (persuade), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (underpinning), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (weak), Ragtag Daily Prompt (veneer), The Daily Spur (reptile), My Vivid Blog (narrow), and Your Daily Word Prompt (construe).