Sellers Should Always Get A Home Inspection, They Don’t Cost Money They Save Money
The saying that when you stick your head in the sand, it leaves another part of your body exposed, can’t be more true than when Sellers decline to gain knowledge about the condition of their home.
Getting a home inspection early lets you know what buyers are bound to find out when they do their own inspection. It gives you at least two (2) options: (1) make arrangements for repairs without being under the time pressure of a deadline or (2) disclose the conditions to prospective purchasers and condition the sale upon the buyers’ acceptance of those conditions and inability to terminate the contract based on them.
Consider Sam who enters into an agreement to sell his home and then enters into an agreement to buy a new one. Both closing dates are 60 days away and on the same date so that Sam will close on the sale of his home in the morning and the purchase of the new one in the afternoon. Sam needs practically all of the proceeds from the sale of his home to complete the purchase. After 14 days, Sam’s buyer tells him that he needs to put on a new roof or give a credit for $15,000 dollars. If Sam tries to find a roofer to install the roof before closing, he will most likely pay a premium price and run the risk of putting on the new roof and then, for some other reason, the transaction fails to close. If Sam really wants to buy the new house. he has little in the way of options. He can try and get a second opinion from a roofer at a lower cost and try to negotiate a lower credit with the buyer (assuming he can find a roofer in the time frame provided under the contract). But Sam is likely looking at having to compromise and paying thousands of dollars. If Sam had a home inspection before he put his property up for sale, he would have had time to shop for roofers or disclose the condition to the buyer and exclude that from the home inspection contingency.