I have never recommended pre-listing inspections to my sellers. Every buyer has a different tolerance level for inspection issues. Some panic over broken window seals and loose garage door springs and others gloss over back draft issues on hot water heaters. A seller could end up fixing issues that a buyer may not have cared about or not catching something that a buyer’s inspection would catch.
But – I’ve had several deals this year that are making me re-think that advice. You can have two home inspections on the same house and end up with two only slightly overlapping reports. I think that if you can catch those items that are most likely to come up again and again and fix them before the buyer inspects… you’re in good shape. The one item that I’ve written about before is MOLD – this has come up for me no fewer than four times this year. A pre-inspection would have caught that and the mold could have been eliminated (and the source remediated) before the house was shown.
When reviewing a buyer’s home inspection report with my seller’s I use the following rule of thumb: if it’s an issue that any buyer will want fixed, you may as well do it now. Because if you don’t do it for this buyer, you will have to do it for the next buyer. And with the market the way it is, the next buyer might be paying less to begin with.
Items such as radon, mold, compromised electrical systems, chimneys filled with creosote or showing blatent cracking. Cracked toilets, reverse polarity outlets, broken window seals, leaky faucets.
It’s not easy being a seller in today’s market! If you want some advice – thinking of selling and you want to get ready – I can help you understand the value of your home in today’s market and we can talk through potential home inspection pitfalls.
