Pre-Listing Home Inspection
Many potential home sellers don’t do a pre-listing home inspection. Why should a home seller do a pre-listing home inspection prior to listing their home for sale? If you don’t, here’s a possible scenario:
Say you are planning to list your home for $300K. However, you want to walk away with $275K or more before real estate agent fees.
You negotiate an offer on your home for $280K, so you are $5K ahead of where you wanted to be. Great!
Then the home buyer has their home inspection done. Maybe the home inspector finds the roof needs work and the HVAC system is in need of replacement. The buyer responds back they want you to do $10K worth of work or a provide a credit. Now you are potentially $5K under where you wanted to be.
Options
If you had used a home inspector for a pre-listing home inspection, these items could have been found and you could have had the following choices before listing your home:
- Increase the listing price of the house by $10K or $15K, giving you more negotiating room.
- Keep the listing price at $300K. Then negotiate a price that will take you below your desired walk price, if repairs/credit are asked for (e.g. $290K instead of $280K)
- Have the repairs done beforehand. List the price of the house $10K higher to compensate for the repairs. Then use the repairs as marketing benefits (e.g. new roof or new AC). A potential buyer seeing the house has a new roof or a new AC would likely see the value in these points.
If you opt to have the repairs done beforehand, when the home buyer has their home inspection done, the buyer’s home inspection may find some issues, but the major (and costly) issues should already be known. Now you, the seller, are happier because you walked away with your expected amount, but the buyer is also happier that they are buying a home with fewer issues since they were resolved before the listing.
Call Tanque Verde Home Inspections at 520-462-8844 or visit our website to schedule your home inspection.
