The reason I know so many listing agents in Sacramento during the boom years of our seller's market suggested ordering pest reports upfront is because the sellers would say so. Right after deciding to hire me and not someone else. I would even go so far as to suggest these are the listing agents who may encounter difficulties when negotiating a request for repair. Make the seller pay for everything often seems the norm of the day in some practices, but not in mine.
I tell sellers what will work and what won't. I level with my clients. There was no reason to dig up dirt on what might be wrong with a property when a seller was required to disclose only what the seller knows. Not what the seller would know if the seller conducted a physical inspection. No reason to produce a report showing tens of thousands of dollars of things wrong. And at the seller's expense. That was insanity.
What I truly believed was best for sellers during our now vanishing seller's market was to make buyers pay for repairs, pest reports, other inspections. Because they could. They held the power to do so. Just sell the home AS IS. However, that attitude began to dissipate last May. You can read more in my personal blog today at this link: Order a Pest Report Yes or No in Sacramento?
