Home Inspection Tips for Sellers
Real estate is seen as an appreciating asset, however a property’s physical structure will eventually deteriorate over time and requires upkeep. Although some problems that arise will be apparent like a burst pipe or deep crack in the driveway not all of the wear and tear on a home’s inner workings are easily visible. We have compiled the top 5 home inspection tips for sellers.
When it’s time to sell your house, the inspection could come with a few surprises even if you’ve kept to a routine home maintenance schedule.
It can be a stressful position to be in as a homeowner, so we’ve compiled a list of top home inspection tips to help sellers prepare for the road to closing.
Tip #1: Trust your real estate agent to help you navigate home inspection preparations and negotiations.
Once you have accepted an offer on your home, the next step is for the buyer to schedule a home inspection within 10 days of the accepted offer. Depending on if this is your first time selling a home or not, you may not have a lot of experience with the process of preparing for a home inspection and the possible negotiations that will follow.
Your real estate agent should help you:
- Create a plan for if the home inspector finds that there is repairs to be made.
- Differentiate between minor and major home inspection findings for negotiations.
- Make the negotiations if repairs come up on your behalf.
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Tip #2: Allow the inspector the time to complete the inspection.
The average home inspection takes a couple of hours, or you can calculate it by planning for about an hour per 1,000 square feet.
Failing to provide adequate time for the inspector to complete their job will not help you at all. The inspection can last longer if your home is particularly old or has additional features to inspect such an attic or crawl space.
During a home inspection both the buyer and buyer’s realtor will typically attend, most of the time it is best for the seller to give them space and to be gone during the inspection.
For the best results, ensure that your real estate agent contacts the buyer to confirm the inspection scheduling, allowing the seller the time to plan to have the house empty.
If you are certain you want to be present during the home inspection, be sure to talk to your agent to find out if its a good idea, many times the seller attending may make the buyer uneasy.
Tip #3: Make sure the house is fully operational
If you are planning on moving out prior to the home inspection or are trying to sell a home that has been vacant for awhile. It is a good idea to ensure that all the necessary utilities are on.
You should also make the remote controls accessible for equipment that match them. During the inspection, the inspector will make sure that all appliances function well and for this to happen the utilities must be on.
All this will make it much easier for the inspector to do their job as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
Tip #4: Declutter to give the inspector clear access to where they need to be.
Many home inspectors identify that clutter as a primary barrier between your home and an inspector’s ability to examine it. When you have a lot of items piled up, it can make it hard for the inspector to get to the equipment or area that they need to.
In order to get to what inspectors call readily accessible areas and to complete their checklist the inspectors first need to be able to get to those areas.
Limited access to important spaces could be as simple as the inspector can’t assess the foundation because stored items and boxes are blocking the way.
No matter the situation, the fact is that if items in your home are hindering the inspectors from doing their jobs, that’s not going to reflect well in their home inspection report.
Tip #5: Don’t try to hide known issues.
When the seller is not cooperating it can be an issue to find any potential problems before the home inspection. It’s oftentimes better to handle any known issues right away before they get identified during the home inspection.
By concealing known issues with the home, it can cause a buyer to back out of buying due to unexpected issues. This home inspection tips for sellers can be really important for when it is a buyers market or its a balanced market.
It’s always a good idea to conduct routine maintenance on a home before it even goes on the market. This way your wont hit any bumps in the road when it comes to the home inspection.
Things that are considered routine maintenance is changing the furnace filter, cleaning gutters, and making sure that the downspouts that come from the gutters extend away from the home.
About Triple Check
Triple Check is an Wisconsin home inspections company. When you need an expert home inspector for your Wisconsin home look no further. Our experience allows us to save homeowners thousands on costly repairs and mistakes when buying or selling a new home. Expect only the best communication, professionalism and hard working staff around.