When you get ready to sell your home, you want to have an edge over the competition, for your home to get noticed, and to be in a position to successfully negotiate with an interested buyer. While staging and preparing your home for sale, you can also take advantage of the many benefits of a pre-listing home inspection.
What Are the Benefits of a Pre-Listing Home Inspection?
A typical home buyer will choose to order a home inspection because he or she wants to know about a property’s condition before finalizing a sale. A pre-listing home inspection is an inspection report ordered by the seller before he or she lists the home on the market. These are some of the ways a seller benefits from ordering a pre-listing home inspection.
1. Know What You Are Selling
When a homeowner has lived in a house for several years, it is easy to assume that all issues with the property are known. However, a seller may be surprised to learn that a buyer’s inspection report shows numerous defects unbeknownst to him or her.
Learning everything you can about the home you are selling helps you to be well-informed from the beginning. A pre-listing inspection report gives you extensive details about the condition of the property that will likely also be detailed in the buyer’s inspection.
2. Prepare Your Home
Buyers often understand that a used or older home will have some defects and are not usually concerned with minor issues. However, when serious issues are listed on an inspection report, such as with the plumbing system, electrical wiring, the roof, or the foundation, buyers tend to see them as red flags.
Some buyers decide to walk away and other buyers attempt to negotiate for repairs to be completed before closing. If you are aware of these issues ahead of time, you can correct them before they affect your sale.
3. Make Repairs on Your Terms
One of the benefits of a pre-listing home inspection is that you can decide which repairs to make ahead of the listing date. If a buyer learns about needed repairs, he or she may specify how the repairs will be done, who they will be done by, or even what materials will be used. You can avoid having to complete repairs under someone else’s directions when you address them ahead of time.
4. Create a Smart Financial Plan
You might be on a limited budget for making cosmetic updates and repairs to the property. It is not easy to accurately determine issues and estimate how much money you’ll need to repair and update the home without a property inspection.
A pre-listing home inspection can be a useful tool during the sales process. By ordering the inspection a few weeks ahead of your list date, you can take advantage of these benefits as you move forward with the sale.
AAA Home Inspections offers pre-listing home inspections to sellers in central and northern New Jersey. Contact us today to schedule your next inspection!