Here's How Sellers Should Prepare For A Home Inspection

How To Prepare For Your Pre-Listing
 Home Inspection

Deciding to sell your house is most likely the easiest part of the process. Preparing your home for sale, and getting ready for the inspection is the hard part. Your inspection report is a critical factor in a smooth real estate transaction, which is why so many sellers are opting to complete a pre-listing inspection before ever placing the property on the market.

I know, you are probably wondering why would you pay for a pre-listing inspection when you can have the buyers take care of this expense. Having a pre-listing inspection benefit all parties involved, especially the seller. Sellers are able to implement a solid strategy and make important decisions on completing necessary repairs or not.

Reasons To Complete A Home Inspection:

Having an inspection signals honesty and trustworthiness that you’re not trying to hide anything.
Not only is this a goodwill gesture, but it also keeps you from being blindsided by major problems that may come up in the buyer’s home inspection. However, regardless of whether you are the buyer or seller, having an inspection is essential to smooth and successful real estate transaction.

Here are a few tips to prepare and speed up the sale of your home and prepare ahead of time for your inspection. By following these tips, your home inspection will go smoother, with fewer concerns to delay closing.


What will your home inspector check?


Appliances: Inspectors will check to ensure that any appliance that will be staying with the home is in good working order. This includes items such as your stove, oven, refrigerator, dishwasher, washer, and dryer, garage door and water heater.


Systems: Inspectors will check systems, including electrical, gas, and heating and cooling.


Structural Features: Home inspectors will look for any issues with your roof, garage, attic,
crawl space, siding windows, or doors.



How To Prepare For Inspection Day?

No matter how much you do to prepare for the home inspection, chances are that the inspector will find something wrong. Most often, problems are minor and inexpensive that sellers can either fix or simply allow for a credit in the sale price of the home. Here’s what you can do to prepare for inspection day and speed up the process.


Getting Started With Preparation For Your Seller Home Inspection:

Let’s start with a clean and decluttered home. Your home inspector will need complete access to your property. Which means that you will need to make sure that all your gates and doors to the garage, shed are unlock and accessible.


Most importantly, inspectors need clear access to critical areas of the house. This includes your electrical box, furnace, hot water heater, and air conditioning units, attic door, and any other possible locked spaces. Keep in mind that, if that the inspector cannot gain access, he or she will not be able to include those areas in the report. Which tends to raise questions for your buyers.


Have your paperwork handy. You should consider creating a file with documentation of any maintenance and repairs that you’ve done on the home. Keep your documentation together so that you can prove that you took care of the problem.


You may also want to check every area of your home for blown light bulbs. This will speed up the home inspection by not wasting time in determining whether a fixture is inoperable or just simply a blown light bulb. Check the following areas for blown light bulbs:

• Crawlspace
• Attic
• Garage
• Furnace room

Although this information may seem basic or just plain common sense for preparation for inspection day, sellers who don’t take the time to encourage a smooth inspection will pay for it in the long run. Just know that a little preparation and attention to these details will set you up for success on inspection day. Here are ten additional tips to help speed up your inspection.

Ten tips to speed up your Pre-listing Inspection:

• Confirm that that the water, electrical and gas services are turned on (including pilot lights).
• Make sure your pets won't hinder your home inspection. Ideally, they should be removed from the premises or secured outside. Tell your agent about any pets at home.
• Replace burned-out light bulbs to avoid a "light is inoperable" report that may suggest an electrical problem.
• Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and replace dead batteries.
• Clean or replace dirty HVAC air filters. They should fit securely.
• Remove stored items, debris, and wood from the foundation. These may be cited as "conducive conditions" for termites.
• Remove items blocking access to HVAC equipment, electrical service panels, the water heater, attic, and crawlspace.
• Unlock any locked areas that your home inspector must access, such as the attic door or hatch, the electrical service panel, the door to the basement, and any exterior gates.
• Trim tree limbs so that they're at least 10 feet away from the roof. Trim any shrubs that are too close to the house and can hide pests or hold moisture against the exterior.
• Repair or replace any broken or missing items, such as doorknobs, locks or latches, windowpanes or screens, gutters or downspouts, or chimney caps.

Regardless of what problems your inspector may find on inspection day. You will have the tools and leverage that is needed to tackle any problems that may hinder the sale of the home.

By taking the time to prepare for your inspection and paying attention to the details mentioned here, will not only speed up your inspection but it will set you up for success in the long run.


If you’d like to avoid the unexpected surprises at closing, consider contacting S&J Home Inspection for an inspection consultation and schedule an appointment for your Seller Home Inspection. We are happy to assist you and make sure that your inspection day goes as smoothly as possible!