Do a House Inspection Before the Buyer’s Home Inspector Comes
You can get good offers from prospective buyers if your house is in good condition and if it passes the house inspection conducted by the buyers’ home inspectors.
You can either hire a professional house inspector to conduct your own house inspection or you can conduct the house inspection yourself. If you feel you have maintained the house regularly and adequately and if you feel you are up to the task of house inspection, you can carry out the house inspection yourself.
Just remember to focus on major parts and essential systems of your house because these are the things that the professional house inspectors will check thoroughly.
One of the things home inspectors do is to pour dyes into the toilet and then flush them to see if the color surfaces somewhere near the drainage system. See to it that your septic system is working.
Turn on and off faucets to see if water pressure is adequate and if water does not leak from the fixtures. Test also your washing machines and dishwashers.
The next thing to check is your electrical system. Open your circuit breaker box and ensure that it reads at least 125 amperes. This indicates the total electrical capacity that your house electrical system can handle. The outlets in your kitchens and bathrooms should have ground fault circuit interrupters.
Your house inspection should also include your heating and air conditioning systems. Check different settings and see to it that the supporting appliances are working well. Test also your smoke detectors.
After your inspection, decide on what to do before the buyer’s house inspector comes. Are you going to undertake repairs? If the defects are minor and do not put others in danger, you can do them yourself. But if the needed repairs are major, you can discuss it with the prospective buyer.
Remember to read the buyer’s house inspection report before signing any contract. You should not sign the contract if it says that you are obliged to make repairs for defects that the new buyer finds out later. Determine whether it is more cost effective for you to make the repairs as demanded by the buyer or give the buyer a discount. If the buyer imposes unreasonable demands, then perhaps it is a sign that you need to wait for a new buyer.
