Should You Get Your House Inspected Before Selling?
Hi, everyone. Hope you’re having a great day today. Just want to take a few minutes and talk to you about why it may be a good idea to get your home pre-inspected before you put your home on the market. Typically, if you haven’t sold a home before, the buyer typically will get the home inspection done once they have the offer accepted. And they usually have about anywhere between between five and ten days to do so.
And then based on the results of the inspection, they will either move forward, you will negotiate on either giving them concessions or doing the repairs prior to closing, or they’ll back out of the sale completely, based on what the report shows. So getting your home pre-inspected can be the better option for you. I mean, obviously it’s going to be more of an investment to get your home sold, but it could be advantageous and I’m going to tell you why. So if you lived in your home for almost 27, 30 years and you’ve only gotten repairs done when something came up, then there’s a big chance that there are some things in your home that you didn’t know prior to. And it could still be the same case that you bought the home only five years ago, because things have changed and maybe the inspector that you had before wasn’t necessarily the best one.
So they didn’t relay to you all the information. So what this is going to do is going to save you time and effort and put yourself in the best position to get the best offer with the right buyer and close in the amount of time that you want to. For example, if you decide to hold off and let the buyer have the buyer get the inspection done upon offer acceptance and they’re finding that there’s a ton of things in the process that needs to be done that you don’t even know about while living in the home, that could take you a long time going back and forth, debating on what you’re going to do, what you’re not going to do, what you’re going to pay for, what you’re going to repair.
And should the buyer be taken back, based on what the report shows, they completely back out of the deal, then that leaves you in a situation where you have to put the home back on the market. And a lot of times when that happens, buyers and agents are cautious about moving forward because they see that the home went off the market and came back on. They want to know why did it go off the market, did the inspection fail? And that’s usually one of the biggest things that they come up with. They say, oh, so there’s something wrong with this house.
I don’t want to move forward. I’m not going to make an offer because I don’t want to waste my money, get the home inspected to find out that I don’t want the house at all. So if that does happen to you, then you know that your home is going to be on the market a little bit longer because people are cautious. It’s not a fresh listing. It’s been on the market and inspection failed. So that’s one reason. But then also if you know that there are things wrong with the property, you can repair them before you put the home on the market. That way there is no negotiation. It is a clean inspection.
You have nothing to worry about because whether you and the buyer that does get the offer accepted with moves forward or not, you’re going to want to do those repairs because someone else is going to come in and ask you the same thing. And because your home was on the market before, then time has gone by where they say, “oh, I’ll offer them less. Then when the inspection comes up, I’m going to want to get more money back on top of that.” So that alleviates that problem by getting your home inspected upfront. And it leaves you worry free if there’s anything else wrong with the house that you didn’t know about already and you can disclose that.
The other thing is, even if your house is brand new or you haven’t lived in a long time and you’re sure there’s nothing wrong with it, that’s going to get you an offer quicker. You say the home is pre-inspected, you provide the inspection report, then a lot of times you’re going to alleviate that contingency because they just had the home inspected before going on the market. I really want this home, I’m going to just waive the inspection, which wouldn’t necessarily be the best position for the buyer, but that helps you as a seller. If someone waives inspection, all you have to worry about is the home appraisal for the most part. (should you get your house inspected before selling? In many cases it’s a great idea)
And the other part of it is that if they’re debating on your home or another a home and they say, well, the house needs some work, but I’m going to do some of the work. And then I see that they got the home pre-inspected versus other house where I’m not sure what’s going on with it, I’m going to think of that house. So you’re going to get an offer quicker. And what does that mean? You may get a situation where more than one buyer wants your home at the same time, therefore you have bidding more, you get more money.
And so for that $300, $500 that you spent on the inspection, depending on your home, obviously that just got you more money. So therefore you netted more money for your home just by getting the home inspected before putting on the market. So I hope this was helpful. It’s definitely a good idea to get your home pre-inspected. Not always necessary for every home.
But if you aren’t sure what’s going on with your property other than whatever comes up every now and then, you live in it for a long time, or you really want to make sure you get the most money for your home. Whatever the case may be, getting your home pre-inspected is definitely a good idea. And even if you don’t need it, it’s going to help you in the long run. So I hope you have a great day and I’ll see you soon. Bye.
Should you get your house inspected before selling? In most cases the answer is yes but the one thing to keep in mind is that you have to disclose what you are aware of about your home in the seller’s disclosure so be sure to talk to you your realtor to help you decide.
This has been “Should You Get Your House Inspected Before Selling?” by Patrice Henderson of Designed Living Real Estate. Be sure to subscribe to her YouTube channel for all your real estate tips, home tours and advice. Get your FREE listing consultation or home evaluation to find out the best strategy to price your home.