The dos and don’ts of getting your home inspected before listing.
Should you have an inspection before you put your home on the market? This question comes up a lot in listing appointments, so I wanted to talk about it today.
If you have a concern with the foundation, you should get it checked out ahead of time. We shouldn’t hire someone from the foundation company to take a look since that’s too much like the fox guarding the henhouse. Instead, we want to hire someone who will help us assess if we have a challenge and identify the cheapest way to address it. If we have this inspection beforehand, we can do all this without the buyer’s scrutiny.
“Avoid getting a regular inspection before you list your home.”
The other thing we should get inspected is the HVAC system. If your HVAC is seven or eight years old, it’s a good idea to call the HVAC company and ask them to make sure it will pass the inspection. They know exactly what to look for to ensure it’s in working condition. You don’t want the buyer to think that they’ll have to pay thousands of dollars to replace it.
Those two inspections are good ideas, but I would advise you to avoid getting a regular home inspection. If you get one, you’ll have to disclose everything the inspector finds. Whenever we’ve provided an inspection report to the buyer with the average 15 to 25 issues listed, they almost always want the seller to fix everything. However, when the buyer does their own inspection and finds those same problems, they usually only ask you to fix a few of them.
Please call me before you have any inspections. We can talk about it, and I will help guide you. Once we find something out, we can’t take it back; you have to disclose anything you’ve learned.
If you have any questions about these inspections or real estate in general, call or email me. I look forward to hearing from you.
