Should a Seller Hire a Home Inspector Before Putting the House On the Market?
Do you recommend a pre-sale home inspection to your seller clients? Yvette Chisholm suggests some good things to consider before you do (or don't).
Does a seller hire a home inspector before putting the house on the market?
Some Say Yes - Others Say No - I say it depends...
If you hire a great home inspector before you put your house on the market they can:
- Determine issues and you can get them repaired
- Buyers have confidence when a home has been pre-inspected
- Sellers have minimized the opportunity for a big "surprise" after the buyer does an inspection
- Gives sellers the opportunity to tweak issues that might look like a long list to an inexperienced buyer
- The home seller will have their own home inspector to review a "potential issue" that the buyer's "home inspector" has discovered
Things to think about:
- It could create liability for the seller if the buyer relies on the report provided and chooses not to do their own inspection
- The seller may spend money fixing things the buyer wouldn't ordinarily ask them to fix
- The buyer has more of an "investment" in the house if they pay for their own home inspection
- If the seller's home inspector misses something that is a health or safety risk
- The home inspector the seller chooses might be more detail oriented that the buyer would have chosen and a long list of items might seem overwhelming to the buyer.
- The home inspector the seller chooses might be less detail oriented that the buyer would have chosen and not inspected items that the buyer considered important or critical.
Yvette Chisholm, Associate Broker, MD, DC, VA Alan Bruzee, Associate Broker, MD, DC, VA
Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc.
Rockville/King Farm Office 301-548-9700
402 King Farm Blvd #150 Rockville, MD 20850Telephone: 301-758-9500
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