For licensees and customers alike, this is a critical phase of the home buyer/selling process...probably THE most critical phase. In my book "Risk Hotline for Real Estate (www.riskhotline.com) I cover this aspect of the home sale or purchase in several chapters.
For sellers...I strongly recommend you have your own home inspection prior to listing your home, or if you must list right away, have this inspection immediately. It will cost you about $400 but can save you thousands.
Suppose you do not have your home pre-inspected. You negotiate a sale price that you feel isn't as good as you wanted but can live with. Then the home inspector finds $2000 in repairs you had no idea were there. Suddenly your net profit has taken a major hit because you didn't know about problems ahead of time.
Having the pre-inspection and making the repairs before sale gives you the edge in two ways: (1) you know about your problems before the buyer does and can correct them, and (2) the buyer knows you have been pro-active in presenting your home in its best manner, giving the buyer confidence they are making the right decision in purchasing your home.
For buyers and sellers: Do not select a home inspector solely because your brother or next door neighbor used that inspector. Speak to two or three inspectors just as you would when selecting a broker to list your home. Two requisites I recommend are: (1) Be sure they are computerized so they can give you a legible copy of the inspection. Inspectors who still hand-write their reports often write so poorly you can't tell what they've said, requiring endless phone calls to get it right. (2) Be sure they take digital photos of problem areas. This benefits you and the seller because you can both see problems and deal with them more amicably.
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