It is very rare for a seller to purchase a home inspection. Although it only costs $300 and potentially saves them from future liablity, home sellers seem reluctant to pay for this expense. I recommend that sellers hire a home inspector when they begin to market their property. When I sold my own home I took my own advice…that in itself is unusual. I kept quiet about known problems and the inspector found most of those , he also found some problems about which I was unaware. He then gave me a written report of the issues I needed to address.
This gave me time to complete the repairs on my own and hire competent professionals for electrical and plumbing work. I went through the report and decided that some of the problems were minor and I just wasn’t going to do anything about them. I then made notes on the inspectors report noting the repairs I completed, planned to complete or planned to just leave as is. Then I attached this report to the Alaska Property Disclosure Form on which I noted all the other issues with the home.
A seller inspection accomplishes at least two things. First, it lends credibility to your disclosure which gives potential buyers a level of comfort. Buyers always wonder whether the seller is hiding anything about their home and sometimes back away from a home partly because of a sparsley complete sellers disclosure form. To see the seller actually hired a professional to inspect their home and then made it available gives them confidence that the seller is telling them as much as possible about the home.
Second, it speeds up the transaction. Most of the required repairs will be completed by the time a buyer looks at a home so that they will not need to be done after you are in contract. It is possible that the buyer may feel confident enough with the provided inspection that they will not get one on the home themselves. You can cut at least ten days off of the transaction time by completing an inspection up front.
