Which inspection issues should I ask the seller to fix?

Rank the report by protection. Above the line are what a family has to live with: exposed wiring or an unsafe panel, a gas leak, an unvented combustion appliance, structural findings at the foundation, and active water at the roof, the exterior or the plumbing. Those are the items with real weight in the negotiation.

Below the line is everything that is preference or wear. A dated kitchen, carpet the buyer will change, and the humble system at the end of its normal life are not defect requests; they are pricing facts. An inspection that notes the water heater is near the end of its useful life did not say it failed, and no rule says the seller replaces it.

The list works best when it is short and documented. Each item quoted with the finding and a number from a licensed contractor reads as serious; a list of twenty-five items, most unpriced, reads as negotiating the whole price a second time. The report is the evidence, and it returns the strongest response when the evidence is served with the number.

Repair versus credit is a real choice. A repair completed by the seller is done and checked before your walkthrough; a credit puts the money in your account at closing and you choose the contractor, taking on the scheduling. The structure of the deal and the calendar decide which works: a confirmed repair on the seller side, a fully priced credit on the buyer side, and both written into the contract.

The market sets the reasonable size of the list. In a quiet market, sellers accept the full priced list of real items. In a market with several offers, a seller may take the safety items and credit a little, and the buyer considers that part of the price of the deal. The home's condition was never something for the seller to erase; it is what the price is built on.

Georgia does not by itself obligate a seller to fix what an inspection finds. The repair is a term negotiated in the purchase agreement, which is why the conversation opens inside the due diligence period, in writing, before the window closes. The period, its fee and the terms of the funds belong to the contract the parties signed, and the walk-away right does the negotiating work now.

In Georgia practice the requests attach to the agreement, often as an addendum that names each item, who repairs it, and the date it is complete, so the final walkthrough is a verification, not a discovery. Or the parties agree to a credit that closes through the attorney's settlement, in the exact number, with no ambiguity at the table.

Build the list with a filter: safety, structure, water. An item that is none of those is a price question and lives in the negotiation, not in the defect list.

Decide repair versus credit per item. The repair keeps the responsibility with the seller; the credit gives the buyer control and a closing number. Match the item to whichever advances the close.

Know your market before you price the request. The same list that is reasonable when homes sit would destabilize the deal in a contest, and the effective one learns the difference.

Keep the closing in front of the list. If the seller agrees to the real items, the preferences that go unaddressed are mostly harmless, and the deal is a good one. The list is a negotiation; the contract, the calendar and the closing are the result.