Seller's Pre-Listing Inspection

According to the National Association of Realtors and the American Society of Home Inspectors 2001 Home Inspection Study, 77 percent of home buyers secured the services of a home inspector prior to purchasing their home. That number has likely grown over the last few years. Some sellers will wait until the buyer pays for a home inspection in order to see what components of their (seller) home the buyer will want to have fixed prior to closing. On the other hand, some sellers are truly unaware of any deficiencies in their home, big or small. Why wait until there is a contract on your home before repair options are considered. This process usually delays closing, brings forth unforeseen costs, or worse yet; causes your buyer to back out of the deal.

Make the smart move and invest in a professional whole house inspection before listing your home.

Some advantages of having a pre-listing inspection include:

• A pre-listing inspection may reveal additional defects in your home beyond what you were already aware of and intending to repair.    Identifying these items gives you the opportunity to fix the underlying problems properly; the first time. This saves you the time, money and the effort of making a small cosmetic repair only to realize that the problem goes deeper, forcing you to perform the repair a second time.

• Most buyers respond positively to a maintained home that has been taken care of.   If there are not many deficiencies listed in their buyer inspection report (because you have already addressed many of them), they tend not to scrutinize the few items that may be present / remaining.

• Pre-listing inspection reports show potential buyers shows you have exercised due-diligence and can potentially reduce repair negotiations.   This makes it harder for the buyer to try to implement tough negotiation tactics and, in fact, may make them feel more comfortable with your home than others that they might be looking at.

• Reduces uncertainty regarding the successful sale of your home.    With all the other unknowns involved in a real estate transaction (financing, price negotiations, days on the market, etc.) doesn't it make sense to put yourself in control of at least part of the transaction; particularly when it comes to potential repair costs?