Prepare for a home inspection

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Sellers you are not completely at the mercy of a home inspector, and you shouldn’t let yourself be. Getting anxious about having your home inspected? Don’t be. There are a few things you as a seller can do to prepare the home for a home inspection which can make the experience that much better.

Home Inspection Tips

It’s not about the cleaning
A messy house does not determine the state of the home’s condition. It’s not about the cleaning but about making everything easy to find and easily accessible. Inspectors are required to inspect every space of the house. This includes the attic, underneath the home, etc. Making these spaces easily accessible will go a long way. When inspectors cannot gain easy access to important components of the house buyers might feel nervous it is an indication that the seller is trying to hide something. That being said, the home inspector will need to test all the appliances so make sure you take your dirty laundry out of the washer and dryer.

Take a look at small spaces

Have you ever looked in your crawl space? Probably not, especially if you have no need for that space. A home inspector will look in that space so you may want to take a glance to make sure the home inspector can access the crawl space and to make sure there is nothing in that space that might stop the inspector from doing a proper inspection. This includes access to the heating systems and garage.

Outside the house

Some of the best steps a seller can take before a home inspection is to take a look outside the house.

  • Clean out dirty gutters or remove debris from the roof
  • Trim trees, roots, and brushes back
  • Ensure that all doors and windows are in proper operating condition
  • Replace any blown lightbulbs

These small steps are easy to do but will also make a big difference for a home inspection

It’s not the time to get cheap

If you, the seller, notices something in the home that needs to be repaired then repair it before the home inspection. However, make sure to repair it properly or hire a professional if needed. Sometimes a botched repair can cause more issues than identifying the problem in the home inspection instead. Definitely don’t try to conceal any defects because when the home inspector finds it, and they will, you’ve now made the buyers very nervous.

 

At Divinity Inspection Service we’re not just careful about the things in your home, we take great care to inspect your house without creating any messes. We take the extra time to make sure both the buyer and seller feel comfortable.

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What to expect in a Home Inspection

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Every home inspection is different and each home inspection brings its own challenges, but there are some common finds with each home inspection. Even property inspections have common defects. On our Divinity Inspection website, we like to make sure every customer has a clear expectation of what to expect with our services, and sometimes that means discussing some of the more common issues we find. You can also look at our defects page for pictures and more information, but probably the most common misconception about our home inspections is that we’re there to scare you. We’re not, we’re there to educate you. You WANT to learn about your home and we WANT to tell you all about it.

That being said, we want to note that not all inspectors are the same. Some inspectors don’t believe in continuous training / learning like we do. All of our inspectors go through weekly updated training to stay updated in building science, inspection training, and much more. You can be confident that our inspectors will not only give you a thorough report but will be highly trained in their specialty.

Roofing issues

Issues with the roof can vary from very minor, such as replacing a few shingles, to major such as replacing a new roof. In some cases, the roof doesn’t need to be replaced right away, but we will know if it will need to be replaced in the next few years and will be able to give the buyer a heads up so they can prepare financially for that big cost.

Foundational Issues

We always hope that we don’t find foundational issues with a home. No need to freak out because sometimes the foundational issues aren’t extremely major. Did you hear about the time we found a tree stump under the house? (We have a picture of it) Not a big deal…as long as the tree stump doesn’t grow.

Electrical Wiring

Of all the common defects we find, electrical wiring is almost guaranteed! Whether the outlets need to be changed or updated, or the wiring throughout the house is no longer up to standard, there’s almost always something that needs to be done in this category. Many times the “do it yourself” jobs, or what we like to call the “handyman special”, simply don’t pass inspection. The good news is, more often than not, the electrical wiring issues that we find is not what we consider a “major” issue and takes little effort to fix.

Plumbing Issues

If a defect could be more common than electrical wiring it would be plumbing issues. Leaking, outdated, or problematic systems occur in many homes and properties. If the home has been well maintained, then these plumbing issues tend to be a fairly easy fix. However, if the home has not been well maintained these plumbing issues can become major issues very quickly.

With Divinity Inspection services you have nothing to fear and nothing to feel anxious about. We will walk you through every single piece of your home and talk to you about your potential maintenance, future costs, immediate concerns, and more. Call us now to schedule your home inspection!

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Your home inspection is not JUST a negotiation tool

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Many times a buyer’s offer that has been accepted is contingent on the home inspection. Unfortunately for some buyers, this means being on edge until they receive the report. Of course, if the seller had their own home inspection done before listing the home for sale, called a Pre-Listing Inspection and highly recommended, then the sellers would already know what to expect and would be confident because of their previous report. Otherwise, a home inspection is many times seen as a necessity for closing on a home sale. While the inspection report is used as a negotiation tool most times, it should also be used as an educational tool for the buyers and their new home.

For many buyers, buying a home will be the biggest purchase of their lives. It’s not unreasonable that a buyer wants their “new home” to be “perfect”! Also in the mix are the two realtors, usually one representing the buyer and the other agent representing the seller – both wanting what’s best for their client’s interest. This is a “many cooks in the kitchen stirring the pot” kind of scenario!

A home inspection is a report used to provide additional information about the home. Generally, if there is a major issue with the home, the seller will issue a credit towards the buyer to cover the cost of fixing any major issues; or the buyer can request the seller have the issue fixed before closing on the purchase of the house. Either request is not unreasonable and is often seen in home-purchasing deals. That being said, the home inspection is essential to a home purchase and should be completed before closing on the purchase. The information in a home inspection report could save the buyer a lot of costs down the road, or at the least, make the buyer aware of issues that will need to be addressed immediately. This is where the educational part of a home inspection comes into play. Not only does an inspection notify the buyers of any immediate issues, but more importantly, the inspection report will educate the buyers on upcoming maintenance, issues they could foresee down the road, costs to prepare for, etc.

Either way there are justifiable negotiations before most home closings, and it is the responsibility of both agents to explain this to their clients. For this reason, most negotiations happen before the offer is accepted. Obvious issues in the home will be considered when pricing the home for sale in the beginning so major issues may already be addressed before the home inspection, but that doesn’t mean you should skip this step. Divinity Inspections Service offers our most-qualified inspectors to review the home / property to make sure there are no major “hidden” or underlying issues and that is really the most important knowledge in this kind of investment. When considering the importance of education a buyer receives from a home inspection, they may be less anxious and more excited to learn about their new home.

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Why do I need a home inspection?

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Often people have a misconception about what a home inspection is all about or what it is intended to provide. Divinity Inspection would like to clear up some of your concerns. First of all, no inspection should be considered to be a guarantee of finding all defects. In the real world this just cannot be accomplished. Inspectors do not have the option of probing into finished surfaces or concealed areas.

That being said, what we look for are indicators of some condition that may raise a question or concern of a past or current situation. Some conditions may only present themselves only occasionally such as flickering lights or waste line back ups. It’s every inspector’s hope that such situations crop up during the home inspection, but we’re not always that lucky.

A property inspection is not intended as a code compliance evaluation. Building codes by the way are minimum standards and can vary widely by state, country and even village. There are also new versions of each code that are generated from time to time. Keeping up with all them is next to impossible. So we look for conditions that meet national standards as well as what we call “best practice.” Our inspection is based upon the conditions as they exist at the time of the inspection. We cannot warrant that conditions will not change after our evaluation.

In our inspections we are primarily concerned with issues that have to do with safety and/or significant repair cost. Much of what we find we consider to be normal wear & tear items that would be corrected after settlement. These are not conditions that would necessarily warrant a request of the seller to repair. Such issues are secondary to us, ones that we do not give as much attention to when we go through a home. For example, the need for some minor grouting or caulking in a shower stall would be minor. On the other hand, loose tile and indication of water damage in the wall would major and be of more concern; and be a reasonable request of the seller to correct.

We have no authority to enforce standards but rather to merely point out conditions as they exist and make recommendations. We will recommend repair to minor grouting in the shower stall just as we would for a leaking roof. Our goal is to help our client distinguish between the significant needs of the home and those that are more commonplace.