 |
| Pre-Sale Home Inspection: Most Sellers Already Know the Flaws |
With quite a few misgivings, I do recommend that nearly all home Buyers invest in a Home Inspection report prior to purchasing a home. But I draw the line when it comes to recommending that Sellers purchase a home inspection prior to listing.
As recently described in a posting to my local Ardmore-Wynnewood-Merion Patch News site, some Realtors do advocate sellers shelling out the $400 to have a professional home inspection performed. I say save the money and put it to better use toward purchasing attractive accessories or obvious repairs that have greater chance of affecting a quality sale of your home.
The Seller-should-spend for inspection camp does have some good logical grounding. Sellers should want to present an upfront and honest assessment of their product. It promotes good-will and an air of transparency which will assist the transaction. Sellers should also want to be informed - ahead of time - of defects that could derail or adversely impact a smooth sale.
But these worthy goals can be accomplished without sellers draining the wallet. As far as appearing open and transparent with buyers, Sellers can accomplish this goal for free by providing a Candid and Informative Seller's Disclosure document and making it readily available to all prospective buyers.
As far as assessing defects to your home, a quality realtor who is not looking to blow-smoke and puff-you-up, can easily advise items that need repair to affect a quality sale. The Realtor can't guarantee that all major elements of the home are satisfactory, but most homeowners have had years to come to grips with their home's shortcomings. It is very unlikely, a home inspector is going to tell you something you don't already know about your home.
If there is something major wrong with your house that you haven't discovered in the years you've been there, it's unlikely a buyer or home inspector is going to uncover in only a matter of hours. Experienced Realtors are not qualified to certify your home, but we've been on dozens, if not hundreds of home inspections and know exactly what home buyers and home inspectors are likely to call out. And if a buyers' home inspection does reveal a major concern, you can deal with at that time and - in the meantime - hope for the best. Believe me, if a Buyers' inspection report identifies a problem, a clean sellers' inspection report is unlikely to help.
And this brings us to the biggest fallacy about sellers paying for a Home Inspection, which is that it will substantially assist a seller in negotiations. Only the rarest of gullible buyers would entertain a seller-financed, potentially-biased and redacted report as a serious avenue for discussion or negotiation. Even poorly-coached or un-informed buyers will shell out the money for their own Home Inspection and have no need to have it usurped by a sellers' report.
Home Inspections do offer some value for their substantial cost, and this value is almost entirely for a buyer's benefit. This value includes:
*Buyer Peace of Mind (whether warranted or not)
*List of Items/Repairs to Negotiate the Price Down
*Possibility of Uncovering a Fatal or Costly Flaw.
None of this is of use to a seller. If you are selling a home you have owned for years, you don't need peace of mind about the home. You are moving on and have had years to discover the home's defects and flaws. At no charge, your Realtor can advise what's necessary to disclose or fix to sell the home. And as far as providing a Buyer with bargaining chips in advance, or the unlikely chance of discovering an unknown major flaw, buyers are going to do their own diligence so let it be on their dime and not yours.
