The report landed. Now what can you actually ask for?
An inspection report is a list of conditions, not a list of remedies. What a buyer can do about those conditions comes down to 14 named instruments — a credit, a concession, a holdback, a contingency, an option, an amendment, an exit — and they are not interchangeable. Each one has its own ceiling, its own deadline, its own paperwork, and its own record of how often sellers and lenders actually say yes.
The instruments buyers reach for first
Every profile answers the same four questions in the same order: what this instrument actually is, how often it is granted, what it costs you to use, and which document has to say so before it binds anyone.
Money moves one way. The deal moves another.
A request that costs the seller cash and a request that changes the contract are answered by different people for different reasons. The first runs into the loan program's ceiling on what a seller is allowed to pay. The second runs into a date. Confusing the two is how a reasonable ask gets cut at the closing table.
What the Seller Pays
Credits, concessions, holdbacks, closing-cost allowances, price reductions and repairs done by the seller. Seven instruments that move money, six of them capped by somebody who is not the seller.
What the Contract Allows
The contingency, the option period, the deposit, the amendment and the two ways out. Seven instruments that move the deal, the timeline or the exit, and every one of them expires on a date fixed before the inspector arrived.
Every instrument, grouped by what using it costs you
The order below is the argument: exhaust what is free before you spend time, money or the deal itself.
Costs nothing but goodwill
7 instrumentsInstruments you can reach for without spending money, time or leverage you may need later.
Seller credit Concession Closing costs Price reduction Lender credit Contingency Amendment
Spends time you may not have
2 instrumentsInstruments that consume the window, on a clock the contract has already started.
Costs you money up front
2 instrumentsInstruments you pay for before you know whether the purchase will complete.
Risks the deal itself
3 instrumentsInstruments that put the sale in play, and the ones a seller can refuse outright.
Asking is not free, and the ceiling is not the seller's to set
A credit above what the loan program permits is cut at underwriting, not at the table. A repair request made after the contingency date is a request with nothing behind it. A holdback the lender will not allow is not a compromise, it is a dead end. Which instrument you choose decides whether the answer is yes, no, or too late.