Is your home ready to sell?
If you’re thinking of selling your home, finding the right Realtor is the first step in the homeselling process. But you can also be a proactive seller by looking into these basic home maintenance issues beforehand: • Check the roof. Find out if there is damage to your roof, especially if your area experiences severe weather. Hail is particularly damaging. For safety purposes, it might be in your best interest to hire a professional to check it out for you.
• Inspect the
attic. In your attic, check for any roof leaks and signs of termites or rodents. Squirrels or rats nesting in your attic are not particular about what they chew, and they sometimes gnaw electrical wiring, which can lead to damaged infrastructure or fire. Navigating your attic can be dangerous, so use caution or hire a professional to inspect it for you.
• Check out paint .It may seem cosmetic, but paint is a first line of defense against the weathering and aging of wood. Also, damaged paint can indicate the start of a larger problem. Brick, stucco and siding should be inspected as well. • Examine flooring. Depending on the level of traffic, hardwood floors may need to be refinished every five to 10 years. If they get too worn down, you’re risking permanent damage to the wood. • Check for leaks. And consider that in some older homes, cast iron was used for the wastewater lines. Such pipes eventually fail. If the seepage is under the foundation, you’ll probably never notice, but it may be worth it to have a professional plumber come
check it out. If the leak gets bad enough, it can damage your foundation. • Check the foundation. The main cause of foundation problems, whether pier and beam or slab, is fluctuations in the moisture content of the soil. If the soil beneath a foundation swells uniformly or shrinks uniformly, it is unlikely to cause a problem. When only part of the foundation moves, though, you’re likely to see signs of damage.
For more tips about buying and owner real estate anywhere in the state of Texas, be sure to visit HAR.com. Kenya Burrell-VanWormer, with JPMorgan Chase, is 2018 chair of the Houston Association of Realtors/HAR.com.