The Buyer's Repair Request in San Antonio: How to Answer the Amendment (TREC 39-9) Without Losing the Deal

The buyer's inspector spent three hours in your house and produced a 60-page report. Now the buyer's agent has emailed you a repair request with fifteen items and a TREC 39-9 Amendment attached. You do not have to agree to any of it. You also do not get to ignore it. What you sign in the next few days — or refuse to sign — decides whether this contract closes, gets renegotiated, or dies inside the option period.

Under TREC 20-17 (the One to Four Family Residential Contract), the buyer bought the house as-is unless you agreed otherwise. Repairs are a negotiation, not an obligation. The exception is lender-required repairs on FHA and VA loans, which are a separate animal covered below.

What the buyer actually sent you

A typical repair request from a San Antonio buyer's agent has three parts:

• The inspection report (TREC-licensed inspector, usually 40–80 pages, with photos and "deficient" flags on the TREC REI 7-6 form).
• A written list of requested repairs or a dollar credit in lieu of repairs.
• A blank or partially filled TREC 39-9 Amendment for your signature.

Read the inspection report before the repair list. Inspectors flag anything that does not meet current code even if the item was code-compliant when built — a two-prong outlet in a 1955 Monte Vista bungalow, a handrail that is a quarter inch too low, missing GFCI in a 1978 kitchen. These are called "informational" deficiencies in practice. They are not defects you have to fix. Separate those from the real items: active roof leak, failed AC compressor, foundation movement outside normal Bexar County clay behavior, WDI (termite) evidence, gas leak.

Your four responses

You have four moves, and only four:

1. Agree to everything. Sign the 39-9 as written. Rare and usually a mistake.
2. Counter with a shorter list. Cross out items, initial, send back. This is the default.
3. Offer a cash concession in lieu of repairs. Almost always the seller's best play. Covered below.
4. Decline entirely. The buyer then either terminates (and gets the option fee back or not, per contract) or proceeds.

If you do nothing and the option period ends, the buyer either terminates by the deadline or moves forward with the house as-is. Silence favors the seller in the sense that the buyer has to act — but silence also destroys goodwill and often kills the deal on the last day of the option.

The TREC 39-9 Amendment, line by line

The Amendment is the only document that legally changes the contract. Verbal agreements between agents mean nothing. What matters is what is written on the 39-9 and signed by both parties.

The form has four operative paragraphs sellers should watch:

• Paragraph 1 — changes to the sales price. If you are dropping the price instead of doing repairs, this is where it goes.
• Paragraph 2 — the property description or exclusions. Rarely used for repair negotiations.
• Paragraph 3 — additional repairs and treatments. Write these precisely. Not "repair roof." Instead: "Seller to replace 6 damaged shingles on north slope and reseal three plumbing boots, work performed by a licensed Texas roofing contractor, invoice provided at closing."
• Paragraph 4 — seller contribution to buyer's closing costs. This is where the cash concession goes.

Vague language in paragraph 3 is how sellers get dragged back to the table at the walk-through. If the amendment says "repair kitchen plumbing leak," the buyer's plumber can decide that means re-piping the whole run. Write the scope tight.

Why a cash concession usually beats doing the repairs

Almost every experienced listing agent in Bexar County will steer you toward a closing-cost credit or price reduction instead of doing the repairs yourself. Reasons:

• You pick contractors under time pressure and pay retail. The buyer, after closing, can shop, use a handyman, or defer.
• The buyer will re-inspect. If your repair is not perfect, you are negotiating again 48 hours before closing.
• Texas Property Code § 5.008 disclosure obligations. Once you "repair" something, you now have knowledge of the underlying condition and may need to update your Seller's Disclosure Notice (OP-H) if the deal falls through and you re-list.
• Concessions are capped by the lender, not by you. Conventional owner-occupied loans typically allow up to 3–6% seller concessions depending on down payment; FHA allows up to 6%; VA allows up to 4% in seller concessions plus normal closing costs. Ask the buyer's lender for the cap before you offer a number.

A $4,000 credit at closing usually resolves a $6,000 repair list. The buyer gets cash they control; you avoid contractor scheduling and re-inspection risk.

Lender-required repairs are different

If the buyer is using an FHA or VA loan, the appraiser — not the inspector — can flag conditions that must be cured before the lender will fund. Common flags on San Antonio homes:

• Peeling exterior paint on any home built before 1978 (lead paint concern, triggers the OP-L Lead-Based Paint Addendum obligations).
• Missing handrails on stairs of three or more risers.
• Exposed wiring, missing outlet covers, double-tapped breakers.
• Active roof leaks or roofs with under two years of remaining life.
• Wood-destroying insect activity on a VA loan (WDI report required in Texas — Bexar County is a heavy termite zone).

These are not optional. If you refuse, the buyer cannot close with that loan. Your realistic options are: do the repair, drop the price so the buyer can pay cash for the fix, or terminate and re-list to a conventional or cash buyer.

Timing: the option period is the leverage window

Under TREC 20-17 paragraph 5 and 23, the buyer paid an option fee for an unrestricted right to terminate during a negotiated period — commonly 5 to 10 days in the current Bexar County market. During that window the buyer holds all the leverage: they can walk for any reason and only lose the option fee.

Once the option period ends without a signed 39-9, the leverage flips. The buyer is now under contract with earnest money at risk. If they walk without a contractual reason (financing, appraisal, title), you keep the earnest money. Do not sign an amendment on day 9 of a 10-day option that you would refuse on day 11.

That said, do not stonewall to the last hour. Buyers who feel jerked around terminate on principle. A same-day counter with a reasonable concession offer keeps momentum.

What most people get wrong

• Treating the inspection report as a repair list. It is a disclosure document for the buyer. Ninety percent of the flags are informational. Respond to the buyer's request, not to the report.
• Using the inspector's cost estimates. Inspectors are not contractors and are not licensed to price work. Get one real bid from a licensed Texas roofer, HVAC contractor, or plumber before you agree to a dollar figure.
• Agreeing to "repair per inspection report." Never sign that phrase on a 39-9. It obligates you to every item the inspector flagged, at a scope the buyer's next inspector defines. Scope every repair specifically.
• Forgetting the updated Seller's Disclosure. If the deal terminates after you have learned about a defect from the inspection, § 5.008 requires you to update the OP-H before you accept the next offer. You cannot un-know what the inspector told you.
• Doing repairs with unlicensed labor to save money. The 39-9 typically requires licensed contractors and receipts. A cousin with a truck does not qualify, and the buyer's final walk-through will catch it.
• Ignoring the buyer's lender type. A cash buyer's repair request is pure negotiation. An FHA buyer's request may contain items the lender will require regardless of what you sign. Ask which items are appraiser-flagged versus inspector-flagged.

The clean close

Work the amendment tight, price your concessions against real contractor bids, and keep the scope of any repair narrow and written. If you are still deciding whether to list, or want to see what comparable homes in your ZIP are conceding right now, browse active listings and pull agent profiles at /agents, or list your home directly at /list-your-home. More seller-side walkthroughs live at /resources.