How do you negotiate repairs after a home inspection in Flower Mound, TX?

In Texas, a seller owes you no repairs at all. Your leverage comes from three things working together: the option period, a short written request for specific repairs, and a signed TREC Amendment to Contract (form 39-11, mandatory since July 1, 2026). Ask for safety, structure, systems, and active water. Leave the cosmetic items alone. If the seller says no, you either accept it, ask for money instead, or walk while your option period is still alive.

By Brian White | August 18, 2026

Your inspector just sent you a 62-page PDF with 41 red items in it, and your first instinct is to forward the whole thing to the seller and ask them to fix it.

Don't.

That report is a condition report, not a repair list. In Texas it carries no obligation whatsoever. The seller can read every page, agree with all of it, and still legally do nothing. What moves a seller is a short, specific, credible request delivered inside a window that's already closing. Here's how to build one.

What "As Is" really means in a Texas contract

Paragraph 7D of the One to Four Family Residential Contract gives you two boxes. Box one says you accept the property in its present condition. Box two says you accept it in its present condition, provided the seller completes specific repairs at their expense.

Almost every Flower Mound resale contract gets written with box one checked, and almost every buyer misreads what that means.

Checking "As Is" does not close the door on repairs. The contract says so in plain language: agreeing to As Is does not stop you from inspecting the property, from negotiating repairs in a later amendment, or from terminating the contract during your option period. You checked that box before you had a report. Nobody expected you to know what you were buying yet.

Box two, by contrast, requires specific repairs written out. Your agent can't put "repairs to be determined after inspection" in that blank, because TREC treats vague language there as practicing law without a license. So box one plus a later amendment is the normal path, not a mistake.

The clock does not stop while you negotiate

This is where deals quietly die in Flower Mound.

Your option period is a fixed number of days, usually 5 to 10 here. It doesn't pause because you're mid-negotiation, and it doesn't extend because the seller is slow to answer. The day it expires, your unrestricted right to terminate expires with it, and your earnest money is at risk.

So work backward. Inspection on day two or three. Report in hand by day four. Your request out by day five. That leaves room to trade, and it leaves you the option of extending, which itself takes a signed amendment and usually a little more option fee.

Anything you and the seller agree to has to land on the TREC Amendment to Contract, form 39-11, which replaced 39-10 and became mandatory on July 1, 2026. Verbal agreements, text threads, and friendly emails between agents are worth nothing at the closing table. If it isn't in the amendment and signed by both parties, it isn't happening. That's the same discipline that keeps a home sale in Flower Mound from unraveling in the last two weeks.

What to ask for, and what to let go

Sellers say yes to short lists. They dig in on long ones. A 15-item request reads as a renegotiation of price, and it gets treated like one.

Ask for these:

• Safety. Gas leaks, scorched or double-tapped breakers, missing GFCI protection near water, an unvented water heater, a garage door that doesn't reverse.
• Structure. Anything the inspector flagged for a structural engineer's opinion, and anything that suggests active movement rather than settled movement.
• Systems at or past failure. A dead compressor, a cracked heat exchanger, a leaking water heater, a failed sewer line.
• Active water. A roof leak, a slab leak, drainage running toward the foundation instead of away from it.

Let these go:

• Cosmetic anything. Caulk, paint, a stained ceiling tile where the leak above it is already fixed.
• Age without a defect. A 14-year-old roof that still sheds water isn't a repair item, it's a budgeting item.
• Anything the seller already disclosed before you wrote your offer. Asking for it now looks like you're moving the goalposts, because you are.

The strongest request I see work here is three to five line items, each tied to a specific page of the report, each clearly about safety or function.

The Flower Mound line items that carry the most weight

North Texas sits on some of the most expansive clay soil in the world, and most homes here are post-tension slabs. That combination makes foundation and drainage the two findings with the biggest dollars behind them.

Real numbers, so you know what you are arguing about:

• Foundation piers run roughly $450 to $3,500 each depending on depth and method. A typical DFW job takes 8 to 12 piers. Standard repairs commonly land in the $5,500 to $8,000 range.
• A full foundation project with drainage correction, plumbing tests, drywall repair, and an engineer's report can reach $20,000 to $25,000.
• HVAC replacement for a furnace and condenser together generally runs $7,000 to $10,000, which matters in a Flower Mound resale where the original 2008 or 2012 equipment is right at the end of its life.

One item worth knowing about this year: Texas REALTORS added Alkali-Silica Reaction, sometimes called concrete cancer, to Section 3 of the Seller's Disclosure Notice (TXR 1406) effective June 15, 2026. It is a slow chemical breakdown inside concrete, and it now has its own disclosure line because it is showing up more often. If your inspector notes unusual map-pattern cracking in a slab, driveway, or patio, that is not cosmetic, and it is now a named disclosure item.

Repair, credit, or price reduction

Three ways to solve the same problem, and they aren't interchangeable.

A repair is right when the work has to be done correctly and you want the burden on the seller. The risk: a seller who doesn't want to pay hires the cheapest bid in town. Ask for licensed contractors and for invoices delivered before closing.

A closing cost credit is usually the better trade. You control the contractor and the timeline, and you fix it after you own it. The catch is that your lender caps seller contributions, and the cap moves with your loan type and down payment. Confirm the number with your lender before you ask, because a credit above the cap gets stripped at underwriting and you lose the concession entirely.

A price reduction lowers your loan and your taxable basis but hands you no cash at closing, and it has to survive the appraisal. If value is already tight, read what happens when a Flower Mound appraisal comes in low first.

For most Flower Mound buyers, a credit beats a repair on anything except safety and structure.

The leverage most buyers never use

Here's the piece almost nobody explains.

The moment you hand a seller your inspection report, they're charged with knowledge of what's in it. Texas REALTORS is explicit: a seller or broker who receives an inspection report is charged with knowledge of the information in that report even if they never open it and even if they disagree with it. Known material defects have to be disclosed to the next buyer.

And the Seller's Disclosure Notice got tighter this summer. The June 15, 2026 revision of TXR 1406 expanded Section 11 to make clear that disclosure of inspections includes evaluations of the roof, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and pool, added a blank for the seller to state how many reports they've received, and added a statement putting the seller on notice of their legal duty to disclose known material facts and defects.

Translation: a seller who refuses to fix a real defect now has to tell the next buyer about it, on a form that specifically asks how many reports they're sitting on. That's a far more expensive "no" than it used to be. You never say this out loud as a threat. You don't have to. A good listing agent already knows it, and it does quiet work in the background of every reasonable request.

And numbers matter more than nerve. In June 2026, 50.5% of Flower Mound sales closed below list price and 30.4% closed above, with a median sale to list ratio of 0.997. Inventory sat at 338 homes at the end of July, with 134 new listings that month, and the typical home value was $610,100, down 0.8% year over year.

That's a market where a seller has something to lose by going back on the market, but not one where they'll roll over. Reasonable requests get met. Aggressive ones get a counter or a flat no, and then you're the one deciding whether to walk over a $900 item.

If you're selling your Flower Mound home and buying your next one in the same window, your buyer is going to run this exact play on you. Pre-inspect before you list, handle the safety and system items on your own timeline, and hand the report to your listing agent so nothing gets discovered at the worst possible moment. That's a core piece of how we sequence a sale and a purchase together.

And if you're buying new construction in Whyburn, Furst Ranch, or Lakeside, all of the above changes, because builder contracts don't work like TREC contracts and a new-build inspection runs on different timing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the seller have to fix anything after a home inspection in Texas?

No. Texas has no statutory repair obligation for residential resales. The seller's only duty is to disclose known material defects, not to correct them. Everything you get is negotiated, and your option period is what gives you the standing to negotiate at all.

Can I still ask for repairs if I agreed to buy the home "As Is"?

Yes. Paragraph 7D of the TREC contract states that accepting the property As Is does not prevent you from inspecting it, negotiating repairs or treatments in a later amendment, or terminating during your option period. "As Is" sets the default, it does not end the conversation.

How do repairs get put in writing in Texas?

On the TREC Amendment to Contract, form 39-11, which became mandatory July 1, 2026 and replaced form 39-10. Both parties sign it and it becomes part of the contract. Anything agreed by text, email, or phone and never written into the amendment is not enforceable at closing.

Should I ask for repairs or a closing cost credit?

A credit is usually better, because you choose the contractor and the standard of work. The exception is safety and structural work, where you want the seller on the hook for doing it right before you own it. Check your seller-contribution cap with your lender first, since an oversized credit can get stripped in underwriting.

Does the option period extend automatically while we negotiate repairs?

No, and this is where deals get lost. The option period runs on its own schedule regardless of how negotiations are going. Extending it takes a signed amendment and usually additional option fee, agreed before the original deadline passes. If the seller stalls past it, you've lost your leverage, not gained time.

Where this leaves you

A repair negotiation in Flower Mound isn't about the length of your list. It's about asking for the right three or four things, in writing, on the right form, before a clock that never stops running. Get that sequence right and sellers usually meet you. Get it wrong and you either overpay for a home with real problems or lose one you wanted over an item a credit would have solved.

This is exactly the kind of thing I walk buyers through before the inspector is ever scheduled, because the decisions you make on day one of the option period determine what's still available to you on day seven.

If you're working through a purchase, or a sale and a purchase at the same time, schedule a free Move-Up Strategy Call ... thirty minutes, no pitch, just a clear-headed look at where you are and what your best next move looks like.

This article is general information, not legal, tax, insurance, or lending advice. TREC forms, disclosure requirements, and lender guidelines change. Verify the current form versions and your specific numbers with your agent, your lender, your title company, and where appropriate a licensed Texas attorney.

About Brian White

Brian White helps families in Northwest DFW make their move-up cleanly, selling and buying in one synchronized step. He built BlueFuse Group on a simple standard: other-first service, proactive at every turn, faith and excellence in equal measure. Brian has been married to Tisha for 27 years and is dad to three adult sons. When he's not protecting a family's equity or untangling a tight closing timeline, you'll find him chasing a round of golf or at Valley Creek Church.

Schedule a Move-Up Strategy Call ... no pitch, just a clear-headed look at your next move.