Should you hire a home inspector before listing your home for sale? Did it even cross your mind?
Consulting with your Realtor is always a good idea but let’s talk about why you should at least consider getting one. Is it always in your best interest? No. Could it be in your best interest? Yes. I know that not answer you’re looking for, but the truth of the matter is, is that every seller’s situation is different and what’s good for one might not be for another.
A positive is that you will now have up-front knowledge of all the major and minor issue with your home. From that list, you can then decide what to tackle or what to leave alone. Perhaps you or someone you know is a great handyman and is capable of fixing a lot of the minor issues. Keep in mind, if a job really should be done by a licensed professional, you really should be hiring one, as opposed to doing it yourself. The last thing you want is to inadvertently do something wrong and end up costing yourself more in the end or create an unintended safety hazard.
If the home report indicates larger problems, then you and your Realtor can sit down and discuss your budget, what is worth doing and what is better off just waiting to see if a buyer makes an issue of it. Some things are always worth taking care of. For example, if you find out you have termites, you should be on the phone with an extermination company ASAP. Depending on the extent of the damage, it may also be wise to have a contractor come in to assess the whether or not your home’s structural integrity has been compromised. The positive spin with all of that would be that you now know a buyer won’t run into termites and panic! You were successfully able to diffuse the situation before it even became a situation.
Another pro could be that a buyer is comfortable looking at your report and accepting it as so. They could then be inclined to remove some or all the inspection contingencies from their offer, which is great because the one of the biggest hurdles in a transaction are the inspections. They could still ask you to repair various things in the report but if you could show them all the items you did take care of, they may be grateful enough for those items to drop their other requests. Perhaps not, but it raises the likelihood. Also, it’s far less stressful getting these repairs done on your own time as opposed to racing the clock to finish by closing.
You will need to disclose certain findings but not necessarily every single little thing. For example, one of the questions on our local property disclosure report asks about if there are any problems with your roof. If your home inspection found that there is a leak, you will either do one of two things.
You can disclose it, which will make the buyer feel you are very forthcoming and honest. Buyers don’t like to feel duped, especially when they find something later on that they felt you should have been aware of and disclosed to them.
The other option would be for you to now market that either the roof is brand new or just be able to confidently check off “no” for any roof problems because you had a roofer come out to repair the problem.
Try not to do too many “band-aid” type repairs. Buyers will notice and then wonder how many other things in the home were cheaply fixed. Of course everyone has a budget and can only do so much but, if you’re able to do it right the first time, just do it.
The bottom line is, sometimes there are no right or wrong answers when making some decisions. I just think that it’s important for you to understand that this is just another way for you to prep your home and be as prepared as you can before listing it for sale.
Comments(2)