In Praise of Pre-Inspections for SELLERS
Good money invested is a home inspection if you are a seller. "I thought the buyer paid for those when they bought?" They do, and often things come up that could have been avoided, including a lost sale, if they had a pre-inspection done.
Dear Home Seller,
I know that when it is time to list your home you will have many opportunities to spend money on a property you are ready to leave behind. In fact it seems that by the time you call a real estate agent you're mentally already gone. Then why would a real estate professional add one more thing to buy, like a home inspection, to you're 'to do' list ?
Now, if you are the one in a million, disciplined, natural born handyman of a homeowner with awesome building maintenance skills you may choose not to read on. However, if you are the normal, unskilled, busy, procrastinator home owner and you haven't read (and understood) an appliance manual lately or been on a ladder, or under a house lately or ever, you may want to think about a pre-inspection of the property you are about to list for sale.
At almost every listing appointment the Seller assures me that his home is is great shape. My response is usually, "Really, how do you know your home is in great shape? Have you been on the roof in the last few weeks? Do you know what a good roof looks like? Have you been in the attic lately? Have you cleaned the gutters in the last few months? Have you replaced the furnace filters? Do you own spare furnace filters?"
I humbly submit that the fact of the matter is that in the same way that driving a car doesn't qualify me to work on one, owning a home doesn't mean that you know what kind of shape your house is really in.
I know, OUCH! The truth stings sometimes. But if your goal is to sell, you may need to let an expert (like the expert the potential buyers will hire) look your place over. Read the Inspectors report and make a pro-active repairs in a pre-emptive move that will tell potential buyers that the expert agrees, your house is in great shape...after all.
Respectfully,
Your Listing Agent
Proudly serving your real estate needs in Bentonville, Rogers and Bella Vista, AR 479-253-3796. I will provide a free market value analysis of your property. Just ask!
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