Selling a home is an intense undertaking at the best of times, but your nerves can be strung even tighter when your prospective buyer sends around their building inspector.
Most Contracts of Sale will make a successful transaction contingent on the building report.
Detrimental findings in a property inspector’s report encourage the buyer to return to the negotiation table to ask for a lower price so they can fix any issues that have been found, or even worse, walk away from the sale.
As an experienced real estate agent, I work with sellers every day to help them prepare their home for sale.
While many of many clients focus on cosmetic improvements, it can also be important to double-down on the quality of the building first.
If there are issues with the foundations, electrics or plumbing, or the home is prone to leaks during rain and storms, then we need to fix that. Those are the issues that buyers will pick up and use to get a discount on your asking price, or walk away.
Below are some tips to help you prepare for your building inspection.
- Be ready for inspections – Be prepared for your home to be scrutinized and retain your good humour and patience. Keep tabs on the deadlines of the contract and when the buyer is supposed to have each appointment scheduled. Ask your agent to persuade the buyer to undertake any inspections as soon as possible. If there’s a problem, the home can go back on the market quickly, and your sales campaign will maintain its momentum.
- Nothing personal – An inspection report assesses a home’s condition. It’s not a report card on how good a homeowner you’ve been, or a “pass or fail” test. You may be comfortably familiar with your home and its quirks, but a buyer and the inspector won’t be. So try not to take anything in the report personally, and remember, minor issues will always crop up.
- Sweeten the deal – Inform your agent if some of the basics of your home, such as the electrical system, need attention. Perhaps you might suggest to them that you might discount the price to finance a rewire, if necessary. Sometimes, it’s a good idea to get a quote for the work, even if you don’t want to oversee the work yourself. That way, you won’t be too generous with a price reduction.
- Keep receipts – If you have already undertaken upgrades to the property, be sure to keep your receipts and any warranties to produce them as proof that you have addressed the issues that had previously existed with your home. This should give the prospective buyer some comfort.