I wrote a little ad piece for the Cary News in May, to be placed in the "Consult a Specialist" Q & A Section.

The thought was to encourage more Sellers to have a home inspection performed prior to putting their home on the market, and to make all cited repairs.  The idea is to put repair issues at rest, and remove them from the bargaining table.  More deals would consummate, with less emotional negotiations, if there were just fewer repairs to work through.

It seems the the North Carolina Association of Realtors is on the same wavelength.  Coincidentally, just a couple of days later, in their weekly update email, I received the proposed updates to Standard Forms for 2008.  NCAR Standard Form 101, "Exclusive Right to Sell Listing Agreement" has a verbage change, with guidelines as follows:

"Added new paragraph 5, Home Inspection, to encourage sellers and agents to talk about advantages of having a home inspection done when property is listed..."

Works for me.  I encourage all NC Sellers to have an inspection done, and I sure wish more did so, regardless of which side of the real estate transaction I represent.