A Guide for Home Sellers Prepping For a Home Inspection
No buyer should buy a house without getting a house inspection. This can cause a lot of stress for home sellers who are not prepared for the inspection. This may be the last step that they have to take before they can start the closing process with a buyer. If anything comes back wrong with the house, it could mean a loss of a sale, or the buyer may want them to reduce the price to make up for the problem.
To avoid any surprises, home sellers should start prepping for that home inspection now.
Ordering the Home Inspection
Not all buyers will want a home inspection. However, in most cases, they will. A buyer that wants to purchase a property for its land and demolish the house will not care what state the house is in. This is good for home sellers who have a rundown home that may not come back with flying colors on the inspection. But the buyer is going to offer much less for the property.
In very competitive markets a buyer may forgo their option to have an inspection to try to appeal to the home sellers. They are withdrawing their right to an inspection to make their offer more favorable to a seller. It is a dangerous way to attempt to buy a house if the property does have major problems.
On average, a buyer will want an inspection to know what problems they are dealing with. They will want to know what is a problem now and what potential problems will be in the future. If there are major problems that come back on the inspection report, they will want the home sellers to fix them or give a credit so they can fix it upon moving in.
What to Inspect
Home sellers who are hoping an inspector will look over the small problems in their house will be very disappointed. Inspectors are trained to pick up on every single detail of a house. Their list has over 1,600 points that they need to inspect for the report to be complete. This list usually catches everything home sellers would want to hide.
There are big areas that the inspector will look at, like the foundation, windows, doors, roof, and siding. Even the ground around the house will be examined. Inside of the home they are looking for damage to walls or ceilings.
An inspector will check heat vents, pipes, electrical, and they will even run water through various faucets to ensure they are working. They are likely to look into the attic to see if it is insulated, and will check that the home has all updated systems. Every aspect of the house will be under scrutiny.
Prepping
Do not just hope for the best. Start by cleaning out the house. This will help an inspector be able to freely walk through the home. Keep in mind that a cluttered house will not keep them from inspecting every aspect of the home. Before letting them in to inspect, make sure all areas are unlocked and accessible.
Provide information on repairs, renovations, and past insurance claims. This information is going to benefit the inspector when looking at new versus old portions of the home. They can also use this information to see if the repairs were completed correctly.
Do Not Stay
Even though the inspector is judging the house, it is better not to stay. Explaining everything about the house is not going to change what they think about it. Even if there is a perfectly good explanation as to why there was damage to the bathroom ceiling, it will still be documented in the report. Let the inspector in to do their job and take a walk around the block.
Something to remember is that it is their job to judge the home. It may be hard to get an inspection back that has a huge list of problem areas, but they are hired to compile every small problem in the home. The list is a jumping point for home sellers to know what has to be updated and what could use some work. An inspection saves a buyer from making a decision they may regret and helps a seller fix their home for the next potential buyer.