Do You Need a Home Inspection to Sell Your House?

If you’ve clicked on this article after getting a recommendation from your real estate agent to get a home inspection done, then you’re in the right place! Why is it needed? Isn’t it the buyer’s discretion if they want to buy the property?

Yes, that’s correct. But also, no, because it’s not that simple.

So, the question to answer first is …

What’s a home inspection?

Just kidding. We’re pretty sure you have an idea of what it is already, right? But for those who might still be confused, we’ve got your back. A home inspection is when you hire somebody to check (or “inspect”) a home you’re buying or selling to make sure that it’s fit for the intended purpose (which is being a home).

To explain what we want to get at here, here’s what the buying process (generally) looks like:

1. Someone lists a house for sale.
2. Someone sees the house decides to contact the seller.
3. The buyer checks the property.
4. If they’re happy with it, they’ll have a “professional checker” look around as well.
5. The pro tells what’s terribly or not-so-terribly wrong.
6. The buyer and seller agree on a price. Sometimes the seller also agrees to fix the issue before they seal the deal.
7. Closing time comes (not the song, but closing the sale), and everyone’s happy. Well, we hope everyone’s happy, at least.

The “professional checker” in step 4 is the home inspector. It’s an essential step in the process, but why is your agent or Realtor asking you to do a home inspection when you’re the seller? What for? Wouldn’t that be redundant if the buyers themselves would do it later on too? Let’s find out.

What Types of Problems to Home Inspectors Find?

Before we get into the why, it might be better to get a picture of how a home inspection goes. After scheduling an appointment, the “professional checker” pays your property a visit (for about a few hours) and goes through each area of the house and takes note of any issue necessary to their report. Speaking of which, they’ll be providing the report within 5 days.

Your home inspector would likely be making a report on the problems noted below. (Please note that additional fees may be charged for some of these or any other reviews you might need.)

1. HVAC Issues
2. Insect/Pest Infestation
3. Electrical System Damage
4. Water Damage and other Plumbing Problems
5. Structural Concerns (Including Roofing)
6. Presence of Asbestos or Lead

But even if you now understand how a home inspection goes, it still doesn’t answer our question. Why might sellers want to have a home inspection before listing the house for sale?

Knowing Your Enemy

When engaging in battle, knowing your enemy can be the key to winning. It’s easier to plan if you know who you’re going up against, their personalities, tendencies, and strategies. Catching on to potential surprise attacks gives you the upper hand in battle, too! It’s just the same for selling your house. Figuring out what problems (or potential problems) are ahead and dealing with them before even listing the house gives you the edge.

What Edge?

Having an understanding of the condition of the home and addressing them (or at least bearing them in mind) allows you to prepare for a number of things. First, the risk of the buyer appealing for a lower price is reduced. After they do the home inspection themselves, they won’t have any leverage to use if you’ve fixed everything. Even if you haven’t covered all the holes, at least you can mentally brace yourself for the impact. Some buyers may also treat certain issues in the home as dealbreakers (despite your initiative to fix it), so it’s for the best to get them out of the way prior to listing.

Following this idea, a home inspection also gives your agent or Realtor the ability to price your home properly. And, because you’ve done the spending earlier on, you could factor that into the final price without having to do them at a loss later on. An accurate price sets the right expectations for you and also your buyer. If their home inspection yields minimal to no issues, that gives them the confidence that you’ve taken care of everything for them.

Lastly, it preparing everything takes the burden of your shoulders. There’s a term in the culinary world called “mise en place” which means “everything in its place”. The idea is that before you start cooking, everything is already in place so that you don’t scramble around the place looking for what you need. Your mise en place in selling the house is your home inspection. If you’ve addressed most (if not all) the problems in the house, you won’t have anything to worry about when the buyer is looking around the house or if their home inspector comes to visit. You also won’t have to be afraid of potentially doing a lot of extra work weeks before closing.

Any Drawbacks?

With all these benefits, there has to be a drawback, right?

Obviously, you’d have to pay for it. It’s not really a “necessary” cost to pay for when selling the house. For those who have a tight budget, this might not be the best thing to do. Hiring is one thing, but the need to deal with the issues reported is another. If the costs required to fix the issues identified are way out of your league, the disclosure laws in your area may require you to tell your buyers about them. While we encourage everyone to be honest with their buyers, letting them know before they even have their home inspector look around could turn them away.