So you’ve put your property on the market, found a buyer, and agreed on a price. Your home is almost ready to sell, but you still need to pass the home inspection, so it’s not quite time to pack the moving boxes.
It’s typical for sellers to feel anxious while the home is being inspected. You don’t want the deal to fall through, and if the buyer demands repairs as a contingency, you don’t want to be left with the bill and the burden of making them. Fortunately, you can take some steps to get ready for the inspection.
Read more: 5 Ways to Save Money On Your First Home
1. Seek Expert Advice
Before taking any measures to prepare your home for inspection make sure to look for advice from experts in the field of real estate selling and buying. Look for a company with ample experience and ready advice and you will probably find very useful information and to-do checklists on anything real estate related. This will in turn help you get your house ready to pass inspection with flying colors.
2. Keep the House Clean
If you’re already midway through the process of selling your home, you’re probably pretty good at maintaining order and cleanliness by this point. After an accepted offer, resist the urge to let things pile up and keep the house clean enough for the home inspector. Although the cleanliness of your home has no bearing on the inspection itself, an untidy or disorganized home might make the inspector wonder if other parts of the property aren’t being properly maintained as well.
3. Check the Condition of the Doors
During a walkthrough of your home, ensure that all of the doors are functional. Doorknobs should be firmly in place, locks should work properly, and both interior and exterior doors should latch into the frame without any difficulty. This also applies to doors that lead outside. Check all doors, even those you don’t use very often, as sometimes cold or heat can warp normally functional doors and cause problems.
4. Replace any non-working Light Bulbs
A blown bulb can mean one of two things to a home inspector: either the bulb is out of order or there is a problem with the wiring of the fixture. Either the inspector will have to spend time determining whether a fixture is inoperative, or they will simply note that a potential defect exists without further investigation. By making sure that all of your bulbs are in good working order, you can prevent both of these situations.
5. The Toilets should Function Properly
Does your toilet continue running after you flush it? When you deal with this problem on a daily basis, it becomes simple to ignore it, but you don’t want your home inspector to discover it. Take care of the issue before the inspection because fixing a running toilet is a quick and inexpensive fix that you can do on your own with a quick trip to the hardware store.
6. Check the Roof
When was the last time you gave your house’s roof a close inspection? Most sellers say that it has been a while. But you can’t simply ignore the roof in your preparations because it’s a crucial component of the home inspection. Get a ladder and clean the moss and debris out of the gutters. You should also look for any missing or damaged tiles and make sure the downspouts are in the right place. If you do discover damage to the roof, you should have it repaired before the home inspection.
7. Check for any Bug Problems
The majority of us occasionally have to deal with a stray ant or spider in the house, particularly in warmer climates. However, if you have a wasp nest in your backyard or frequently notice ant trails in your kitchen or other interior spaces, you should take care of these issues before the inspection. The majority of bug issues are minor, but they can discourage buyers.
Read more: 3 Tips on Selling An Inherited Property
Final Thoughts
You should have taken every precautionary measure possible by the day of the home inspection. Making sure everything goes as smoothly as possible is all that’s left to do now. Keep all utilities on, check to make sure you’ve left clear access to all rooms and systems, and unlock any gates, electrical boxes, or other places you typically keep secured in order to accomplish this.
Most importantly, prepare yourself and your family to leave the house during the inspection by getting ready at least two hours before the inspector is scheduled to arrive since they have a habit of being early.
