When selling your home in today’s market place you need to do everything you can to get that edge, to make people want to buy your home. Pre-Listing Home Inspections can help you to make sure that your home is in tip top shape prior to having that first offer.
You have a home that is over 30 years old and you are ready to sell it. You are worried that years of deferred maintenance will come back to haunt you. You’re scared that when you finally get an offer you will have to spend $10,000 to $20,000 in repairs for the buyer.
You have concerns that trouble spots will knock down your asking price, and that repairs to placate a buyer would reduce your proceeds. So you do what your Realtor has recommended and hire a home inspector to do a Pre Listing home inspection for you
This thinking reflects a sound strategy to repair only the most critical items necessary to pass home inspection muster. The approach used in the past is to wait for an offer before a home inspector inspects a home. Once the home inspector for the buyers get involved, though, it can open up a Pandora’s box of costs and demands. Buyers push the envelope; sellers, sometimes panicked by a lack of other offers capitulate.
There is a very important reason to take a proactive approach easily emulated by others who know little about the real estate sales process. It’s important for a basic, crucial reason: Your home inspector represents your interests, not the buyer’s. More and more sellers are opting to have a Pre Listing home inspection.
Most sellers feel that it is the buyer’s responsibility to have the home inspected. But by then it’s too late, because the buyer is in the driver’s seat in terms of repairs and, more importantly, repair costs. It is amazing that so many people think their house is in pretty good shape, then they find all these things wrong and they wonder how this happened.
The time to spot a problem is early, before you list your home. Only then, does the seller have a chance to shop around for the lowest price. Sellers can also control the scope of work. For example, a basement with evidence of moisture can open up the cash spigots for buyers to demand elaborate French drains and other water control measures. It could just be the foundation needs to be re graded to flow water away from the foundation walls. For a few hundred dollars the seller can solve the problem quickly. Sometimes it’s a simple as having gutters and downspouts installed or repaired.
Rick Erickson, HomePro Home Inspections, Serving Rochester and Southeastern, MN. 507-202-8942
