I'm sorry that I can't answer your question, but I'm a first time home buyer as well. My inspection is scheduled for tomorrow, and I was curious about the same types of things, should it come up.
Starting Score: 505 1/15/12Good luck to you. I hope nothing major is found! 
Thank you both for your prompt response and advice. I'm glad you both were able to get your problems repaired (or paid for) without a hassle. It's nice to have eager sellers. You'd think most would be.
We will definitely be asking for repairs. I just hate to think of what kind of blow back will come from the seller's. I can't wait to get to closing (one day) to just never have to deal with these folks again. It's like pulling teeth to get them to even respond. You'd think they'd be in as big a hurry to sell as we are to buy. Their renters are moving out at the end of the month and the sellers don't physically live there.
@AppleJacks wrote:Thank you both for your prompt response and advice. I'm glad you both were able to get your problems repaired (or paid for) without a hassle. It's nice to have eager sellers. You'd think most would be.
We will definitely be asking for repairs. I just hate to think of what kind of blow back will come from the seller's. I can't wait to get to closing (one day) to just never have to deal with these folks again. It's like pulling teeth to get them to even respond. You'd think they'd be in as big a hurry to sell as we are to buy. Their renters are moving out at the end of the month and the sellers don't physically live there.
Hmmm...maybe they were/are procrastinating for some strange reason or maybe they were waiting the whole month to see if they'd get better offers. You have the good sellers that want to sell their homes and you also have the greedy ones. They want every penny they can get.
Did you ask for them to cover some closing costs also? My seller contributed $2885 towards the closing costs. My closing costs is under $6000.
I offered $6000 over the asking price for the house and when the appraisal came back, it was $6000 less (ha), so I asked for a $6K price reduction and he took it. Lucky me....but this whole loan process is just taking forever. It's been a whole month and my loan is STILL in UW, but this time is for final approval and then it gets sent to the USDA, which is going to take another 2 weeks. So, I feel your pain. You're definitely not in this alone!
Well we asked for the repairs and the seller agreed to most after several days.
We had the mold inspector come out and it ended up being something very little and not anything toxic.
The one thing we thought the sellers would balk at they did without question. The thing we thought they would do without question they balked at.
Nonetheless, all repairs are done now, and once they agreed, were done quickly, and with no money out of pocket to us buyers (the mold guy didn't charge us, even though I wanted to pay him for his time).
Now we are waiting on the appraisal. My husband spoke to the loan officer and realtor today. The appraisal has been ordered (yesterday) and the LO expects that to be about a week and a half. Then we will be sent to UW with the bank before finally being sent to USDA. We've read up on this site and tried to think of anything at all they may ask for so we can have it ready to go as soon as they ask. My husband had his last name changed right before we married so he could take his grandparents name, since they raised him. I've made sure we have that scanned in and ready to email, etc. RD is currently about 6 days behind in our area according to our realtor. I'm not sure how he finds out that information. Is there a website that would list that information? It seems I've read something about it before.
Our very, very tentative closing date was first put at June 3 due to the renters having until May 31 to vacate. How often is the first date accurate. I would think most likely it's just an approx. date due to some many variables which each loan and them all being different. I'm hopeful we can make that date because our lease is up June 12th. We can go day to day but we lose our deposit after 3 days in day to day, so June 15th. It's not the end of the world but it sure would be nice to avoid.
I just feel like even though we've done so much already we have so far to go. It seems to get much harder the more your not needed, lol. For instance, with the inspection, counter-offer decisions, repairs, etc. your involved to some extent. Now, when your at the point where your just waiting and have no control on the speed in which things are accomplished, it seems so much longer!
Oh well, I could always use practice with my patience and there are worse things to wait on I suppose! Just so nervous. Thank you all for all your answers and wisdom.
Well we were going USDA Guaranteed but just found out today we make way too much (We now make about 101K combined). My husband and I both got promotions in the last month. It's sad when you can't get too excited about your promotions because of it's effect on your home purchase, lol. Anyway, now that we make over 100k and aren't even close to the limits. Even though we were pre-approved went through the inspection, and were waiting on the appraisal. I was perplexed as to why the LO thought we could to begin with (knowing our new incomes) but, hey I wasn't going to argue and my husband was so sure she was correct. She told us it went off our last two years tax returns/W-2's and she is the professional.
Thankfully we have the savings to go FHA (just BARELY) and are locked-in and should close before the PMI change (or so we're told). I did not want to deplete our savings and have none for a few weeks until we build it back up. I mean if there is an emergency I guess we can use our credit cards but who wants to do that? We now have to move ourselves as well. I know that sounds silly but I've moved 17 times since I've been an adult all over the country (ex-husband was military). I've always done it on my own and I was so looking forward to someone doing it. Hopefully this is the last time..ever.
Our closing has to be on or after June 3rd because the seller's have renters until May 31st. I sure hope my LO is right on our PMI. My credit scores are 731, 726 and 691 and my husbands are almost the exact same. We have no late payments, no collections, no BK, our DTI is around 11% and our DTC is 22% or so and have at least 3 active accounts (car loan, student loan, credit cards, store cards). I hope this will be okay. I thought we were fine to buy. I feel like I can't take one more issue. Today has been the most stressful of days! 
I'm just thankful it's something we can still work with.