Prior to the days of Hurricane Katrina I used to suggest to all my sellers to get their home pre-inspected so that we wouldn't have any surprises when the buyer had their home Inspection.  Then came the hay days after Hurricane Katrina where buyers were just glad to have a home to purchase.  Now that the market has shifted back to the norm it's time to consider making an investment in your home prior to putting it up for sale in the form of a home inspection.

The reason most sellers don't want to do this is the cost.  A home inspection can run from $250-over $500 - depending on size.  Let's say you spend $500 and find out that you have some wiring issues that are not up to code - and with FHA (government backed loans) being so popular the house does have to be to current code - and it's going to cost you $2000  to make repairs.  You can now factor that into the price you accept on the sale of your house.  To an appraiser, that $2000 is just maintenance so he isn't going to give you anything extra.  But, in a negotiation, wouldn't you rather know up front that you need this work done than wait until after you have negotiated a price on your house with a buyer AND THEN have to spend an additional $2000 you hadn't counted on.

One of the questions a lot of sellers ask me is why do they need to make repairs to their home when the condition existed whenever they purchased the home.  All I can say is that times have changed.  With the mortgage lenders looking harder at the houses they are doing the loans on, they don't want any possibility of problems in case they foreclose on this home in the future.  You may have lived with this condition for years, but that condition may no longer be acceptable to a buyer.

A home inspection won't take all the surprises out of the sale because the buyer's inspector might find something else, but at least you will have a heads up on the most expensive items.  An extra benefit of the pre-inspection is that you can advertise that this has been done so many buyers won't want to spend the money to have a second one performed, and if you have any major repairs, you can use that as a bonus to buying your house over your neighbors!!!! 

If you are contemplating selling your house in the next couple of years, now is the time to start preparing for that day by starting now to do that maintenance you have been deferring for years!  If you are planning to sell soon, call me and I'll get you a copy of a brochure called 'Passing the Home Inspection".