How a Pre-Inspection Can Save You Thousands
If you’re a seller, when should you do your own pre-inspection? Well, if you aren’t 100% certain you’ll be getting multiple offers, it is always a good idea.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing your own pre-inspection?
The truth is, there’s one condition upon which you should base this decision when selling your home. If you aren’t 100% certain you’ll be getting multiple offers, then it is a good idea to do your own inspection.
In cases like these, doing your own inspection before you list can have some huge advantages. A major concern I hear from sellers who are considering doing this is the fear that they’ll find something wrong with the house and need to disclose it.
This is absolutely the case. But, what people often forget is that the buyer will always find out about problems with the home anyway. Whether you do the inspection before listing yourself or the buyer has one conducted, any issues in your home will be discovered.
“Whether you do the inspection before listing or not, any issues in your home will be discovered.”
It isn’t your responsibility to hide your property’s faults. When you find problems before you list, you’re making sure the buyer isn’t going to find them after making an offer—something that would cause a lot of problems on your end.
Once you’ve signed a contract, you’re no longer on the MLS and the buyer has all the leverage. At this point, you run the risk of going back on the market if you aren’t willing to comply with what the buyer wants.
This will damage your listing in a few ways. For one, you will have been on the market for much longer than you could have been.
You don’t want to be caught in a position like this, so discovering and disclosing issues before you’ve reached this point is going to be your best option.
When you do have an inspection done, you’re able to approach the buyer from a position of leverage. You can disclose any issues there may be, but won’t need to feel worried about them discovering any further problems.
This year, I’ve already helped two clients buy houses where an inspection wasn’t done prior. Had the seller disclosed the issues we found beforehand, we would’ve written the exact same offer. But since this wasn’t the case, we got $5,000 off in concessions.
From their perspective, this was a huge loss. It could have been as simple for them as paying $500 for an inspection instead of taking a several thousand dollar hit.
If you can, always do an inspection prior to listing. It’s really as simple as that. Not only does it save you from a lot of trouble, it also will get you a lot more offers. People are tired of paying for the inspection required for them to make an offer.
Eliminating the obstacle of an inspection for the buyer will do great things for your listing.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.