Use Your Home Inspection to Fit Your Current Need
Your professional home inspector is a resource for anyone involved in property. A thorough, comprehensive home inspection provides a lot of information about a property and its value. Because the home inspector looks at the property from foundation to roof, your report provides a wealth of data about the current state of a property.
The value of the information is in the detail. In today’s world data is knowledge, and with knowledge comes power. Just like any information source, you can use the information and knowledge to influence good decisions. The more informed you are, the better you can make wise decisions about your property transaction.
A professional home inspection is like a mini-course in what makes a sound property. Armed with this information you can confidently decide to buy or sell. In addition, you’ll know what maintenance needs to be done now and what issues could come up in the future.
Use the Benefits that Fit Your Need
Once you discover the value of the information in a home inspection, you’ll find it’s an effective and economical way to make a wise choice. Because people use a home inspection in a variety of situations, learn how to get the most from your inspection, the inspector, and your report.
First, take advantage of your professional home inspector. Meet with them at the inspection to ask questions as they make discoveries. A professional home inspector brings experience and expertise along with his tools. Get direct answers as she performs the inspection. You’ll see what they see. You’ll go through the discovery process together.
As you watch your home inspector climb, crawl, and poke through your property you’ll get a sense of how thorough the inspection is. You’ll be reassured that your inspector has gone everywhere to look for possible safety and structural issues.
The written report is a document you can review, show to contractors, and potential buyers to reinforce the state of your property. You’ll be armed with information.
Buyers
When you want to buy a home, your home inspection can help you validate your purchase or avoid a pretty disaster. If your home inspector finds issues that need repair, you can negotiate for repairs with the seller, or include a request for repairs if you are paying top dollar.
You’ll know how much to ask for repairs based on the repairs noted in the inspection report. You’ll know how to talk to the realtor to determine how to proceed with negotiations before you get to a signed contract. You’ll be able to negotiate predicated on a written contract that stipulates the price, terms, and conditions of the sale.
This knowledge is especially helpful for first-time homebuyers who haven’t experienced home ownership.
Sellers
Once you decide to sell your house, get a pre-sale inspection before you put your home on the market. You’ll know the easy items you can fix so they never appear on the table when it’s time to negotiate. You’ll learn any bad news before your list your property and how to deal with the results. Remove non-essential items that are safety issues to resolve in the least costly manner before a buyer demands a different or more expensive fix. This will save hours of negotiation from a buyer who uses this detail to grind down the price.
Catalog items into categories like repairs or improvements to segment all the items into buckets—those you’re agreeable to repair versus items you decide not to address like cosmetic fixes. Armed with your detailed inspection report which categorizes the severity of items, you’ll find it easy to sort the issues you want to fix from those you don’t.
Use your home inspector as a resource for how to get repairs done and as a reference for vetted providers. Then let reliable service operators and contractors do their work.
Homeowner
If you’ve lived in your home for a while, a preventive maintenance home inspection will keep you up to date with the soundness of your property. As much as you love your home and want to remain there, don’t forget that your home is also an investment.
A periodic home inspection can alert you to repairs and fixes that your home needs to preserve its value and keep it safe for you and your loved ones. As your home ages it can experience shifts and weakened systems that require minor repairs. Taking care of those repairs when they are discovered can save thousands of dollars in major repairs later on.
Think of periodic home inspections, say every five years, as part of your home maintenance.
Real Estate Professionals
Help your clients set realistic expectations about real estate transaction. Frame enthusiastic interest in a property with realistic expectations based on solid information. Setting reasonable expectation is a major boost for client retention. As you educate your clients, you build trust. Advise your client to inspect real estate framing the importance of a realistic evaluation.
As you advise your client on the professional and objective findings in a home inspection, you set realistic goals. Home sellers gain a more realistic idea of the true value of the property with a pre-listing home inspection so they can set a reasonable selling price. You can help buyers tame their enthusiasm to a realistic value including any remediation and repairs recommended by the inspection.
On either side of the transaction, you help your clients work to understand the middle ground. You’ll be helping them toward the fastest, most profitable, and efficient transaction. Successful transactions result in happy clients, repeat business, and referrals.
The Safeguard for Realistic Expectations
The average cost of a home inspection is just pennies on the dollar value of a property. Think of it as an investment in peace of mind. The professional, objective evaluation of your home is the fastest way to set realistic expectations and achieve satisfaction during a stressful real estate transaction.
Inspect.net has been providing professional inspections in the Greater Bay Area for over 25 years. Get in touch to schedule your inspection now. Call us at (510) 200 – 7555.
