Should A Seller Have A Pre-Inspection Before Selling Their Home?

A question I started to ask myself recently was should a seller have an inspection prior to listing their home on the market? I started thinking about this when one of my listings transactions fell through because of buyer financing. The buyer had done an inspection and provided me with the inspection report. We did all the repairs that were on the request (which was everything) and it cost the seller less than $500 to do. Upon terminating the other contract I rewrote the description to include inspection report and repairs done. I had four showings in the next few days after that and multiple offers...we received a price higher than we anticipated for the house. When he deal closed last week I asked the buyer's agent why they chose that house and came up so high over the asking price. The Realtor told me it was because of the condition of the house and the inspection report showed only minor items and the seller had already repaired them...We felt confident going in that the house was not going to have any issues....

That made we start thinking...Should I have sellers do a pre-inspection on their homes before I list them? Can I increase the value of the house? Or if there are issues the seller does not want to address will they lower their expectations on what the price should be?

I think a pre-inspection can add value and benefit to a home....It can help put at ease some buyers concerns if the house is older and not as updated that everything is either working fine or if there are issues that the asking price reflects the work to be done to the house.

Thinking about it had me looking at some listings I had done where the seller has done major renovations to their home in the past five years...it adds tremendous value to the home. Buyers feel more at ease when they know going in that all the items are newer.

I really could not see the disadvantage to having a pre-inspection done to a home unless it is newer home or recently renovated. Even then the inspector is going to find something wrong with the house...(they all do). However; my experience has shown that the items they find wrong are minimal. Now though, you have a buyer looking at a house with an inspection report knowing the home was cared for and taken cared of...it makes the house more attractive to the buyer and more expensive as well...The unknown condition of the house is now gone form the equation.

Dave diCecco
Realtor/Broker
Coldwell Banker United
Cell:704-519-7895
ddicecco@cbunited.com
www.davedicecco.com