Home Seller's Inspection or Prelisting Inspection

Home Seller's Inspection or Pre-listing Inspection Showalter Property Consultants in Maryland If you are selling your home you should talk to your Realtor about the advantages of having your home pre-inspected by Showalter Property Consultants. You may have heard of a Home Seller's Inspection or “Pre-listing Inspection”, but what exactly is one and what are some of the pros and cons? In the current market, a "buyer’s market", the house is listed at a set price, only to discover through the buyer’s home inspection there were unforeseen problems they were not aware of.

Over the years we have seen buyers discover major defects as a result of our performing an inspection on their behalf only to the surprise of the home seller after a price has already been negotiated. So a home pre-inspected by Showalter Property Consultants can help you from having a sale jeopardized by unknown problems waiting to be discovered by the buyer’s inspection. This ultimately could affect the money the buyer was counting on at closing for their own needs or the findings could cause a deal to fall through, due to discovered defects.

You may hear the argument about not wanting to know of any problems and concerns regarding disclosure issues that may arise. Those may be valid arguments if significant defects are not discovered during the inspection (to the buyer’s detriment) process or in a seller’s market. In the current market where sellers are already being beaten down on price knowing ahead of time may be to the seller’s benefit.

Here are a few considerations for a prelisting inspeciton

1. First the buyer even though they may still get their own inspection may feel more at ease, as the seller is not burying their head in the sand about latent defects.

2. The seller can list the house with a disclosure “the roof is nearing the end of its life” rather than the buyer saying they didn’t know. Or “there is a wooden foundation present”, “Polybutylene plumbing and here is an estimate if the buyers wants it all replaced. This way the buyer cannot come back and say after they put an offer in on known deficiencies, they want more off or repairs to be performed.

3. The seller then can factor these considerations into their selling price with the guidance of their Realtor.

Other Considerations of a Prelisting Home Inspection

1. A Pre-Listing inspection may not discover all defect as with any inspection, so make sure you get and seasoned home inspector. The buyer’s inspector may have a difference of opinion on some systems.

2. The house may develop changes that will become apparent during a later inspection, such as a heat pump losing refrigerant, a plumbing leak or a roof leak to unforeseen changes such as weather.

3. This is also a good reason to offer a warranty on older systems. If you are a seller your Realtor can advise you on these and discuss the pros and cons of obtaining such a warranty.