“If you are selling a home you’ll get the highest price in the shortest time, if your home is in top condition.”

You will want to find out about any hidden problems before your house goes on the market. Almost all sales contracts include the condition that the contract is contingent upon completion of a satisfactory inspection. This is known as the inspection contingency. Buyers will insist on a professional home inspection performed by an inspector they will hire. If the buyer’s inspector finds a problem, it can cause the buyer to get cold feet and the deal can often fall through.

There are a number of reasons why an inspection would be beneficial to a seller listing a home for sale…

It allows you to see your home through the eyes of a critical third-party.

It helps you to price your home realistically.

It permits you to make repairs ahead of time so that …

Defects won’t become negotiating stumbling blocks later.

You have the time to get reasonably priced contractors or make the repairs yourself, if qualified.

It may encourage the buyer to waive the inspection contingency.

It may alert you of items of immediate personal concern such as an active termite infestation.

It may relieve prospect’s concerns and suspicions.

It reduces your liability by adding professional supporting documentation to your disclosure statement.

It will alert you to immediate safety issues before agents and visitors tour your home.

If there are any problems discovered that need to be repaired, you can have the repairs done on your own terms.

It’s better to pay for your own inspection before putting your home on the market. Having a pre-listing inspection done will make the whole sale process easier. Find out about any hidden problems and get them corrected in advance, on your own terms. Or present the items as is and reflected in the purchase price. Otherwise, you can count on the buyers inspector finding them, at the worst possible time, causing delays, and costing you more money. When a problem isn’t found until the buyer has an inspection performed, the deal you’ve worked so hard to get done may fall apart unless you act quickly to get the repairs done. Or you may have to take a lower price, in order to keep the deal moving. In either case, you’ll almost certainly have more headache, and spend more money, than if you’d known about the problem and had it repaired before negotiations began.

If the house is inspected before it goes on the market you will be aware of issues before an offer is made. There wont be any surprises and the deal is far less likely to fall apart. It takes a lot of effort to get a sales agreement signed in the first place. If the inspection turns up problems, the buyer will want to negotiate a new deal and that second sales agreement is usually even harder to get done than the first one.