February 2nd, 2010

Home Inspections~Not only for the buyer!

If you are considering selling your home or currently have it on the market, have you considered a pre-listing Home Inspection? You may ask, why should I spend the money when the buyer is going to get a home inspection anyway? Let’s examine this a little further. You have spruced up your home, given it a fresh coat of paint, planted some flowers in the yard and gotten rid of the clutter. Heck, you may even consider staging the property. Why do you need a pre-listing Home Inspection?

With a pre-listing Home Inspection a Certified Home Inspector will come to your home and perform a detailed inspection of the home and potential areas that may require repair. So how does this help you?

The most important thing in selling your home is finding a ready, willing and able buyer to purchase your home. Once you have an accepted offer, one of the contingencies in the contract is the buyer has the right to inspect the property. If there are items found the buyer’s inspector that they do not want to deal with, they can cancel the contract. You are back to square one. Perhaps there are items found by the buyers inspector that will be very costly to repair. You may not be in a position to repair these items. You may be asked to reduce the purchase price or to credit money at close for the cost of the repairs. This will cut into your bottom line. If you can not come to an agreement, the buyer can cancel the contract. Back to square one.

If you find out prior to an offer of any major problems requiring repair, you will be in a better position to negotiate the best price to sell your home for. In addition, it shows the buyer that you are pro active in selling your home and have made any repairs found in your home inspection and will give the buyer assurance the home is sound. Additionally, what a great selling tool for your REALTOR to be able to show potential buyers!

If you do decide to get a pre-listing home inspection, don’t forget the golden rule, you must disclose! Anything you find out in your home inspection, must be disclosed to potential buyers. Again, this may not be a bad thing. It puts you in a position of power. The power to sell your home at the best price, with or without the repairs! If the buyer agrees to the price and already knows repairs have been made or which items may need reepair, you are in the drivers seat!

Don’t get hit with the unexpected and risk the deal going south. Know what you are working with before you get into contract! Consider a pre-listing Home Inspection, it’s not only for the buyer!