Do I need a Prelisting Home Inspection?

During the process of selling a home the purchasers will require a home inspection. If your home will eventually have a home inspection done, why do you need a prelisting home inspection? How do you know when you should be considering paying for a home inspection before you put your house up for sale? These are common questions we run into with home owners. What many don’t know is the time, money, and headache a prelisting home inspection can save.

Who needs a Prelisting Home Inspection

Not everyone needs to have their home inspected before listing their home for sale. In fact, you could argue that most people don’t. We won’t argue that most people do, but we want you to be able to make an informed decision before bypassing this option. Here are some indications to consider before deciding:

• You doubt the condition of your home, whether it be the home’s entirety or something specific
• If you need to identify and fix major problems before listing the home for sale / uncover any potential “deal breakers”
• You want ease of mind by knowing what any home inspection might uncover before entering the selling process
• If you want to speed up the sales process

As you can see the list is long and we can go into more detail. Give us a call if you are considering getting a prelisting home inspection done and we are happy to offer our guidance.

Benefits of a Prelisting Home Inspection

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the questions above then it’s time to seriously consider getting a prelisting home inspection. Let us explain how it works and some of the direct benefits you can expect, both for you personally and for the purchaser, as a result of a home inspection.

First, a home inspector will inspect your home from top to bottom before you list your home on the market. The inspector will write up a full report of any minor or major issues with your home. You then have the option to address these issues before listing your house or leave everything as is. No matter what, the decision is yours to make. Either way you can work your decision into the listing price. If you choose not to repair any major issues you will have to compensate this into the listing price. If you do choose to repair any major issues then you might be able to increase the listing price of the home. Ask your agent to help you determine what is best for your situation. Both the report and overview can be made available to real estate professionals and prospective buyers.

With a home inspection report, you have now completed a major step in the home buying process. Prospective buyers can have ease of mind because they already reviewed your inspection report. Some buyers, if they are satisfied with the report, will choose not to have the home inspected a second time. This makes the entire process faster. If buyers decide to have a second inspection done you can rest easy knowing you already have all of the information.

Share or not, you cannot hide

That being said, keep in mind that you do not have to share the prelisting inspection report with anyone. Especially if you have addressed or repaired any issues, there may be no benefit to sharing these previous flaws with prospective buyers. To clarify – you should never try to hide major issues in the home from any agents or prospective buyers. Being upfront about the condition of the home will help to eliminate conditional offers or issues with negotiations, resulting in the seller having to sell the home more than once because the buyer has changed their mind.

If you are interested in scheduling a prelisting home inspection today, start by scheduling your inspection directly on our website! Please call us with any specific questions you might have.