Repair Requests in a Florida AS IS Deal: Transaction Step 12

You have your inspection report, your WDO report and maybe a 4-point. Now comes the part most buyers dread: asking the seller for something on a contract that says the seller does not have to give you anything. This is Transaction Step 12 in the Bella Trae Realty series, and it covers what an AS IS repair request in Florida can and cannot do.

What the AS IS Contract Actually Promises You

As of October 2026, the current version of the Florida Realtors and Florida Bar AS IS Residential Contract for Sale and Purchase is the ASIS-7x form. Three paragraphs shape every repair conversation:

• Paragraph 12(a), Inspection Period. You get the number of days written in the blank, or 15 days after the Effective Date if it is left blank. If you decide in your sole discretion that the home is not acceptable, you can terminate by written notice before the period ends and get your deposit back.
• The acceptance clause in that same paragraph. If you do not terminate in time, you accept the physical condition of the property, including code violations, and you become responsible for any repairs your lender requires.
• Paragraph 11, Property Maintenance. The seller must keep the home, including the lawn, shrubbery and pool, in the condition it was in on the Effective Date, except ordinary wear and tear and casualty loss.

Read together, the seller has no duty to fix what your inspector found. The seller does have a duty to hand over the house in the same shape it was in when you went under contract. That gap is where every AS IS negotiation happens.

Your Leverage Comes From the Right to Walk

A repair request under an AS IS contract has no contractual teeth by itself. Its weight comes from the termination right in Paragraph 12. If the seller knows you can still cancel and recover your deposit, a reasonable request becomes a choice for the seller between a modest concession now and putting the home back on the market.

That leverage ends when the Inspection Period does. A request delivered with two days left, or an amendment still unsigned at 11:59 PM on the last day, leaves you holding a contract where you have already accepted the condition. On a typical Horizon West or Clermont purchase, we build the request around the deadline from the start so there is time for a counter and a reply.

What Is Genuinely Negotiable

Everything is negotiable in the sense that you can ask. In practice, Florida AS IS requests that get a yes tend to fall into a few shapes:

• A price reduction. Simple to document and it carries through the whole deal, though it also changes the appraisal and loan math.
• A closing cost credit. Popular with buyers who want cash kept in their pocket. Lenders limit how much the seller can contribute and what the credit can pay for, so ask your loan officer before you put a number in writing.
• Seller-performed repairs. Possible, but spell out the scope, a licensed contractor, permits where required, and receipts before closing. Plan to confirm the work at the walk-through.
• Items tied to insurability. A roof, electrical panel or plumbing issue that an insurer flags on a 4-point can stop a policy from binding. Sellers in Winter Garden and Windermere tend to take these seriously because the next buyer will hit the same wall.
• Open or missing permits. Under Paragraph 12(c), if your inspection turns up open or needed permits, the seller must share the documents it has and cooperate with your efforts to get estimates. The contract does not make the seller pay to close them out, so that cost is a negotiation point.

What Usually Is Not on the Table

Cosmetic wear, dated finishes and anything plainly visible at your showing rarely earn a concession on an AS IS deal. The seller priced the home around its visible condition, and the form tells you so. Paragraph 10(j) has the seller state that it knows of no facts materially affecting value that are not readily observable and have not been disclosed. A long list of small items can make the seller read the whole request as a renegotiation of price and stop engaging.

Lender-required repairs also land on you under Paragraph 12(a). If an FHA or VA appraiser in Davenport or St. Cloud calls for a repair, you can ask the seller to handle it, but the contract makes it your responsibility unless you negotiate otherwise in writing.

How to Ask in a Way That Gets a Yes

• Lead with a short list. Three to five items tied to safety, insurability or major systems read as serious. Twenty items read as a fishing trip.
• Attach the evidence. Send the relevant pages of the report and a written contractor estimate for each item. A number from a licensed Central Florida contractor is harder to dismiss than a guess.
• Choose one remedy per item. Credit, price or repair. Mixing all three on one line invites a counter that satisfies none of them.
• Put the agreement in a signed amendment. A verbal yes from the listing agent changes nothing. Until both parties sign an addendum, the original contract controls.
• Decide your walk-away point first. If the seller says no, you need to know before the deadline whether you are closing as is or terminating.

At Bella Trae Realty we usually prepare the request, the estimates and the draft amendment in the same week the inspection report lands, so you are never choosing under a clock that has already run out.

Up Next

On Wednesday, Transaction Step 13 covers the Loan Approval Period and the financing contingency: how long you have, what it protects, and what happens to your deposit if the loan does not come through. If you are inside an Inspection Period right now and want a second set of eyes on a repair request, Contact Bella Trae Realty today.

General education only, not legal, tax or lending advice. Contract terms change by form version and by deal, so confirm current requirements and figures with a licensed Florida professional.