Home inspections benefit both buyers and owners,
How to choose right person for the job
Springtime is home buying (and selling) season. By now most people know why you need a home inspection before you buy a house. If you don’t, let me give you a reminder: You can end up buying a can of worms that will cost you tens of thousands of dollars to fix.
Getting a home inspection is smart — paint can hide a world of trouble. If the home inspector finds problems, it can help when it comes to renegotiating the asking price.
But home inspections don’t just help homebuyers. They can work to your advantage when you’re selling, too.
Anyone selling their house will go through a home inspection — you can’t avoid it. But getting one before listing your property puts you ahead of the game.
You will know of any issues or fixes before buyers find them. If you wait and hope they don’t, there’s a good chance they will and your home will stay on the market longer. And get ready for some heavy renegotiations. When buyers find problems, they are not happy, and they will show it by cutting the selling price — in some cases, by quite a bit.
Fixing any issues your house has helps to increase your property value, decrease the time it’s on the market and avoid renegotiations. Bottom line: Your house will look better to buyers.
Some home inspectors will give you a coloured hard copy and CD of the inspection report. If you place these on the coffee table when people are looking at your house, a responsible homebuyer will appreciate it.
You can also reference the inspection report in listings, feature sheets and online, to help speed up a sale.
Today, people want to get as much information as they can on their phones, on their lunch, during breaks and so on. If you have an inspection report with photos plus some beauty shots of your house, you will speed up the selling process.
But the key here is finding the right home inspector, whether you’re buying or selling. You don’t want to depend only on the home inspectors your real estate agent recommends.
Real estate agents want to make a sale — it’s their job. But their commission is based on the final selling price of the house so it’s not unlikely they want to keep it higher. This is fine, but it’s not when it’s done by hiding problems.
When you’re buying a house, an unscrupulous real estate agent might recommend a home inspector that will likely not “catch” all the problems, just so they can make a quick sale. A home inspector might do it because they want to keep getting referrals from the agent.
If you’re selling, shady real estate agents might not want problems in your home caught — again, to keep the selling price up. They might have your best interest in mind, but the strategy is off. You could end up facing renegotiations or not selling.
Find the problems, get them fixed, add the cost of the repairs to the selling price, and speed up the sale. Everybody wins — you (the seller), the real estate agent, and the buyer, because they will be getting an honest assessment of the house and its worth.
When you list your house, feature the inspection report, photos, all the work that was put into it, and if a buyer is serious, you can even add the contractor’s contact information and show them any permits for work completed.
A home inspection is a great tool for the entire housing industry — real estate agents, contractors, homebuyers and sellers. When we use them right, everyone wins. But just like any tool, they require the right skill. Choosing a home inspector:
Finding the right home inspector is just as important as finding the right contractor.
Do your research, ask for referrals, talk to previous clients, and look at the inspector’s track record.
Ask how long they have been an inspector and how many inspections they have done.
Find out what they did before becoming a home inspector
Ask if they use a thermal camera and do they have Level 1 certification in thermography.
Make sure they have insurance — and how much.
This will tell you if they have what it takes to help you buy and sell it right.