If you’re selling your home, you may be wondering if it’s a good idea to invest in a pre-listing home inspection. Traditionally, the buyer is the one who requests – and pays for – a home inspection.
However, you can always hire your own home inspector for a pre-listing inspection. Doing so will give you a better idea of how much your home is worth, and it has a number of other benefits.
A pre-listing home inspection is just like any other home inspection. After you schedule an appointment with an inspector, they’ll come to your home, and walk through your entire home, examining every major and minor element, and noting its overall condition.
You can ask questions during the process, and afterward, you’ll be given a comprehensive home inspection report, noting all of their findings.
Even if you do get a pre-listing home inspection, chances are that your buyer will want to hire their own inspector to conduct another comprehensive inspection. So, why bother with a pre-listing inspection? Here are seven reasons why:
1. You Learn the Condition of Your Home
The pre-listing inspection will eliminate the fear and stress that a home inspection with a buyer can bring. Since a home inspection comes after an offer is already made, the risk of losing a buyer due to a home inspection is very much a reality and can kill the sale of your home. When you learn about the condition of your home before it goes to market, you have a chance to learn what might impact the sale of your home.
2. You Can Make Repairs
The advantage of a pre-listing inspection will allow you to make any home repairs that may scare a new home buyer from the purchase of your home. As a bonus, you will be able to use the repairs as features to attract buyers.
3. Time is Money
This type of inspection may help your realtor better price your home to attract the right buyer. Pricing your home right from the start can greatly reduce the number of days it sits on the market. This might even result in asking for a higher price point for your home.
4. Negotiate with Ease
Home inspections typically result in new negotiations. When you get a pre-listing inspection, the chances of that happening are far less. Since negotiating can be an exhaustive process, this may decrease the stress in selling your home.
5. Attract Confident Buyers
When you can go to the housing market with a pre-listing inspection, buyers know that you are a serious seller and take the care of your home seriously as well. This builds confidence among potential buyers and will help you attract the right one to your home.
6. Avoid Unpleasant Surprises
You might be worried that disclosing everything to a buyer will cause them to pay less for the house. The truth is, they’re going to find out anyway, but it will be after they’ve already agreed upon a price and terms that they might not want to pay after the outcome of that inspection.
7. Have a Smooth Transaction
By getting a pre-listing inspection, the risk of the unknown is eliminated and both the buyer and seller will feel confident about the deal. When you leave the discovery of the home’s condition entirely to the buyer is when problems arise. They will want to renegotiate the price or ask for repairs to be made. Then you need to get estimates and wait around on contractors, all while you’re in the process of selling your home.
