It seems those of you that have sold your homes always mention that you had to fix certain things after the house inspection.They always find something it looks like. What sort of items did they find.Maybe if I could have some idea in advance I could hopefully get ahead of the game. Thanks for any help.
I have sold and built a few homes over the years, all maintenance on the house should be perfect, Gutters cleaned, no unfinished projects, no excess clutter. No pet smells, remove heavy window drapes or curtains, let in plenty of nat light. Mechanically, make sure no toilets run, no lightbulbs out, Clanging pipes in the wall, no visible water damaged walls. Thermostats should be working, no dripping faucets, basement must be neat and DRY. Any roof shingles off, or up?(curled). As home inspectors we will always find something, if we dont, we feel like the customer wasted there $ paying us. The trick is to make the list manageable and small. G
Racerguy said
11:21 AM Mar 23, 2010
Thanks Gene,I appreciate the info.
HapyKamper said
11:36 AM Mar 23, 2010
Hi George,
We closed on our home last week. The buyer did have an inspection completed of our home. I will be happy to send you the report if you are interested. (send me a PM and Ill forward it to you).
Our buyer only asked that a few of the items be repaired. Keep in mind, however, another buyer may only want a price reduction rather than having something repaired. And, like Gene says in his message, the home inspection companies will always findi something. Having a good agent with a lot of experience to help you repond to the report is key.
We had a two year "plan" to get ready for our home sale. We found a very experienced realtor who went through each room and gave us advice on how to "stage" it. We removed a lot of furniture and all personal items, painted all the rooms a neutral color, and cleaned and organized every closet, bathroom and kitchen cabinet. He even had us alphabetize the spice rack. Our bathrooms sparkled. At the time we thought he was being obsessive, but it worked. We had a great offer is less than 3 weeks (we actually got three all on the same day)
He cautioned us about doing any expensive improvements such as the roof because the buyer may not make it an issue. He reommended having an estimate done only.
Good luck, we hope your "honey do" list is not too long.
Carol
-- Edited by HapyKamper on Tuesday 23rd of March 2010 11:37:52 AM
Phanntom said
06:56 PM Mar 23, 2010
George...I haven't been through the home inspection yet but I'm not anticipating any problems. I did paint the exterior trim and eliminated any and all clutter inside. I listed it a week ago friday, the sign went up tuesday 2 showings each day and got an offer well above my listing price on friday. I accepted the offer but they keep showing the home...5 showings over the weekend and 2 today. When I finally got around to listing it I figured I had 6 months to a year (So. Cal) before it would sell. HA!....I sold myself into homelessness. The house was spotless and I think I have a very good realtor.
Mechanically, the house is perfect...everything works as it should. It was built in 2002 and with just one person living in it, it hasn't really had much wear & tear. It's scheduled to close on April 29th...then I can begin my journey.
two travelers said
07:14 PM Mar 23, 2010
We have been painting , cleaning and clearing for a year now.. Hopefully it goes on the market in June... I am sure if someone looks close enough and wants to find something wrong with it they will... but we will have to cross that bridge when we come to it...patti
peg513 said
03:51 PM Mar 24, 2010
George - our house went under contact Monday evening and our inspection occurs this coming Sunday, I'll let you know what kind of things they find. We have an FHA buyer, so the inspector will definitely be looking for things that may be of a safety concern. I really doubt they find much. The big thing these days according to our Realtor is radon detection and remediation which is about $1000. Another thing in our neighborhood is scoping the sewer main to be sure the clay attachment to the mainline are not broken. Our house was built in 1948 so there is a good chance we will have a repair there.
K & E said
06:10 PM Mar 25, 2010
I think a lot depends on the inspector. Some are better than others. In our case, we spent 2 years stripping all wallpaper, painting the rooms a nice fresh neutral color and we replaced all old carpeting. All mechanicals were in excellent working order. We have a newer roof and the outside of the house is in excellent condition. We decluttered every room and cleaned out the basement and all closets. We got rid of a great deal of our stuff before we ever listed.
The inspector found some minor items. There were a few outlets in the basement with reverse polarity which we fixed. One bathroom sink had a drain stop that didn't close completely. We fixed that. We had one window with a broken thermoseal. We replaced the glass. The problem came with what the inspector didn't find. Because our furnace, air conditioner and water heater are older (about 15 years on the furnace and 5 on the water heater) the inspector said there was "potential" for problems. He recommended a licensed electrician, plumber and HVAC technician inspect everything that was in perfect working order at our expense. This caused the buyers to get overly worried and they wanted us to replace all the mechanicals after we had already agreed on a lowball price. We ended up having to walk away from the deal.
So, even though we had the house in excellent condition, the inspector caused lots of problems by pushing everything off onto licensed contractors to cover his butt. It was extremely frustrating.
We have also found that buyers want a new house at a very used price. Our house is 34 years old with some updating. It is priced below assessed and recent appraised value and buyers still aren't satisfied. They want everything new, but don't want to pay for new prices.
Good luck to you. We will be having the 33rd showing on Saturday. Several buyers comment it is in their top 2 or 3 and may come back for a second showing, but still no offer.
hogans1947 said
08:55 PM Mar 26, 2010
We sold our house "as is" at a reduced price because we had already moved out and were a long ways away living happily in our MH. At that point we were just over the whole thing and wanted to be free to enjoy our new home and life. We did do some minor things that needed to be done before we left but knew an inspection would find some things that we would not be around to fix. Brenda
toxr said
09:26 PM Mar 26, 2010
Racer,
We are getting our home ready to go on the market. We are finished spending money on this house. The one thing that worries us is the age of the furnance. A couple of the realtors that we have interviewed has suggested we purchase a house warranty insurance. It will cost us $500 but will cover the furnance, hot water tank etc from the time we put it on the market and for 1 year after the purchase. We don't pay for the insurance until closing and not at all if they don't sell it. This is supposed to help take the worry from the buyer about a major repair in the first year. We live in New Jersey.
Ruth Ann & Bob
Racerguy said
09:40 PM Mar 26, 2010
Toxr,We have an inspection coming soon and we too are concerned about the age of our furnace although as a Gas Company Service tech I kept it in perfect condition.Many inspectors take the lazy way out and don't really check things out, just pass the buck and state due to age there is a "potential" for trouble. We have looked at warranties just in case but will wait and see.Maybe it is where you live but the two warranties I looked at were in the $ 300.00 range here in Colorado. Not going to consider house sold this time until we have check in hand.
Speedhitch said
09:59 PM Mar 26, 2010
George we did the warranty deal and that was the best thing we ever did. Don't worry about it too much it will all work out.
rjenkins said
06:09 AM Mar 27, 2010
seems to me that if you can get a warranty for 300 dollars that is a small price to pay to make the house that much more attractive to the buyer. it will take away some of the haggling that may exist after an inspection is done. there are certain items that are always recommended to be done prior to putting it up for sale to give it 'curb appeal'. if true, this warranty house insurance is probably one of the cheapest things to be done to give it that extra boost, especially if you are in a market that makes it tough to sell a house.
peg513 said
02:26 PM Mar 31, 2010
We got our inspection notice yesterday. We have the option to either fix the 5 items or reduce the purchase price by $1800. We are probably going to opt for the $1800 because what she is asking for is probably going to exceed the $1800. The good news is that there is not request for sewer repair or radon remediation.
1) Service the furnace and repair a gasket - it is 8years old. Correctly wire the condensation pump (which passed inspection) and better filtration.
2) Repair leaking gas valve to water heater (This was recently tested so we doubt there is actually a leak). Reattach the flue - again passed inspection at installation.
3) Repair leaking water main valve - not leaking so have no idea what the inspector found.
4) The flashing where the roof meets the brick chimney is not installed correctly. Again passed inspection and we haven't had any leaks
5) repair the brick chimney cap.
Really it is a list of deferred maintenance items and nit-picky things, it could have been much worse and we will take the the small hit on price and move forward.
Racerguy said
09:42 PM Mar 31, 2010
Inspection was yesterday, got report this morning. All we had to do was replace two electrical outlets by Kitchen sink with GFI's. Already done and paperwork faxed to Buyers Realtor. Although we prided ourselves in keeping our home repaired and in good shape we were worried the inspector would find some surprise.Big weight off our shoulders.Peg513 probably wise choice to just reduce the $1800 and be done. Good luck.
-- Edited by Racerguy on Wednesday 31st of March 2010 09:45:05 PM
janieD said
07:26 AM Apr 1, 2010
Congratulations! I remember the relief we felt when that part of the process was over.
Happytrails said
08:29 AM Apr 1, 2010
Congratulations.....we also remember the relief when the inspection was over. Onward and upward!!!
53 Merc said
11:14 AM Apr 1, 2010
peg513 wrote:
We got our inspection notice yesterday. We have the option to either fix the 5 items or reduce the purchase price by $1800. We are probably going to opt for the $1800 because what she is asking for is probably going to exceed the $1800. The good news is that there is not request for sewer repair or radon remediation.
1) Service the furnace and repair a gasket - it is 8years old. Correctly wire the condensation pump (which passed inspection) and better filtration.
2) Repair leaking gas valve to water heater (This was recently tested so we doubt there is actually a leak). Reattach the flue - again passed inspection at installation.
3) Repair leaking water main valve - not leaking so have no idea what the inspector found.
4) The flashing where the roof meets the brick chimney is not installed correctly. Again passed inspection and we haven't had any leaks
5) repair the brick chimney cap.
Really it is a list of deferred maintenance items and nit-picky things, it could have been much worse and we will take the the small hit on price and move forward.
I might be tempted to tell them that all items on "wish list" are fit for purpose and passed construction inspector criteria, and give them 500.00 for cosmetic and "wish list" items. I did that on a house in Houston and they jumped at it.
http://www.hribar.com/fifteen-things-to-sell-your-home.html
I have sold and built a few homes over the years, all maintenance on the house should be perfect, Gutters cleaned, no unfinished projects, no excess clutter. No pet smells, remove heavy window drapes or curtains, let in plenty of nat light. Mechanically, make sure no toilets run, no lightbulbs out, Clanging pipes in the wall, no visible water damaged walls. Thermostats should be working, no dripping faucets, basement must be neat and DRY. Any roof shingles off, or up?(curled). As home inspectors we will always find something, if we dont, we feel like the customer wasted there $ paying us. The trick is to make the list manageable and small. G
Hi George,
We closed on our home last week. The buyer did have an inspection completed of our home. I will be happy to send you the report if you are interested. (send me a PM and Ill forward it to you).
Our buyer only asked that a few of the items be repaired. Keep in mind, however, another buyer may only want a price reduction rather than having something repaired. And, like Gene says in his message, the home inspection companies will always findi something. Having a good agent with a lot of experience to help you repond to the report is key.
We had a two year "plan" to get ready for our home sale. We found a very experienced realtor who went through each room and gave us advice on how to "stage" it. We removed a lot of furniture and all personal items, painted all the rooms a neutral color, and cleaned and organized every closet, bathroom and kitchen cabinet. He even had us alphabetize the spice rack. Our bathrooms sparkled. At the time we thought he was being obsessive, but it worked. We had a great offer is less than 3 weeks (we actually got three all on the same day)
He cautioned us about doing any expensive improvements such as the roof because the buyer may not make it an issue. He reommended having an estimate done only.
Good luck, we hope your "honey do" list is not too long.
Carol
-- Edited by HapyKamper on Tuesday 23rd of March 2010 11:37:52 AM
George...I haven't been through the home inspection yet but I'm not anticipating any problems. I did paint the exterior trim and eliminated any and all clutter inside. I listed it a week ago friday, the sign went up tuesday 2 showings each day and got an offer well above my listing price on friday. I accepted the offer but they keep showing the home...5 showings over the weekend and 2 today. When I finally got around to listing it I figured I had 6 months to a year (So. Cal) before it would sell. HA!....I sold myself into homelessness. The house was spotless and I think I have a very good realtor.
Mechanically, the house is perfect...everything works as it should. It was built in 2002 and with just one person living in it, it hasn't really had much wear & tear. It's scheduled to close on April 29th...then I can begin my journey.
The inspector found some minor items. There were a few outlets in the basement with reverse polarity which we fixed. One bathroom sink had a drain stop that didn't close completely. We fixed that. We had one window with a broken thermoseal. We replaced the glass. The problem came with what the inspector didn't find. Because our furnace, air conditioner and water heater are older (about 15 years on the furnace and 5 on the water heater) the inspector said there was "potential" for problems. He recommended a licensed electrician, plumber and HVAC technician inspect everything that was in perfect working order at our expense. This caused the buyers to get overly worried and they wanted us to replace all the mechanicals after we had already agreed on a lowball price. We ended up having to walk away from the deal.
So, even though we had the house in excellent condition, the inspector caused lots of problems by pushing everything off onto licensed contractors to cover his butt. It was extremely frustrating.
We have also found that buyers want a new house at a very used price. Our house is 34 years old with some updating. It is priced below assessed and recent appraised value and buyers still aren't satisfied. They want everything new, but don't want to pay for new prices.
Good luck to you. We will be having the 33rd showing on Saturday. Several buyers comment it is in their top 2 or 3 and may come back for a second showing, but still no offer.
Brenda
1) Service the furnace and repair a gasket - it is 8years old. Correctly wire the condensation pump (which passed inspection) and better filtration.
2) Repair leaking gas valve to water heater (This was recently tested so we doubt there is actually a leak). Reattach the flue - again passed inspection at installation.
3) Repair leaking water main valve - not leaking so have no idea what the inspector found.
4) The flashing where the roof meets the brick chimney is not installed correctly. Again passed inspection and we haven't had any leaks
5) repair the brick chimney cap.
Really it is a list of deferred maintenance items and nit-picky things, it could have been much worse and we will take the the small hit on price and move forward.
-- Edited by Racerguy on Wednesday 31st of March 2010 09:45:05 PM