My wife and I want to put an offer on a house that has granite countertops. The countertop by the sink has two nickel sized pits that are relatively deep. A few questions:
1) Is this a material defect or is it the owner?
2) Is there any way to fill these pits?
3) Is the house worth less for resale?

Also, the white sink is 7 years old and has many scratches in the bottom. Can these be buffed out, if so how? If we want to upgrade to a stainless sink one day and it is mounted under the granite, can we change out the sink without damaging or replacing the granite?

Thanks,
Steven

I have never seen pits as you describe on granite. It sounds like someone started to drill holes for the faucets. I doubt it could be filled without being noticeable. I would allow for new countertops when making an offer. Sometimes the old sink is damaged when the countertops are replaced, so you might as well allow for that, too. Some sinks can be resurfaced, but I've never heard of buffing out scratches.

This is just my opinion, but you are buying the house and can update how you want so I don't think you should allow for new countertops when making an offer. Unless the owners really wrecked them, you can't expect them to have been perfect owners, waiting for a sale, keeping their house perfect(trust me, I tried doing that for our last 2 houses and it just caused a lot of stress on me). I have a fancy bathroom soap dispenser by my kitchen sink to match my decor--could you possibly do the same for the time being? Or a small vase, or small dish to hold rings/watches while cooking/doing dishes? If the hole is more in the middle of the counter, what about some other decor, just staying there? A plant? Fancy dish to match the kitchen? Can you tell us where the pits so I know how far off-key I am?
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For the bottom of the sink, to avoid getting scratches, I found a clear sink mat, about $5. You don't notice it like a clear one, and it really helps protect. If you can't fix the sink yet, will you think of a cheap quick fix?
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I have an undermount sink, and I thought too how can we change it someday, although we have corian, but I would suggest talking to a granite specialist to get their opinion. You should be able to see seams in granite so I don't see why they couldn't uncaulk everything when you change sinks.
Good luck! Let us know what you decide!
Please

Thank you both for your responses. We did put an offer on that house, but lost out to someone else. We actually just went into contract on another house in the same development that blows this one away. The only downside is it has Corian insead of granite.

Thanks for your help,

Steven

Congrats! Just a question, why do you prefer granite to corian? We chose corian because it didn't show the seams and didn't need the care granite does.

We have had both corian and granite for our kitchen countertops. Although corian is nice, granite blows it away. There is nothing like a natural stone like granite for a counter top, IMO. We liked it so much, we had granite put on our desk top.