There are stakes for both buyers and sellers.

Once you’ve accepted an offer, your home will get the once-over from the buyer’s home inspector. The inspection is usually a contingency of the offer, meaning the buyer can back out based on the discovery of serious problems. The lender also expects an inspection to make sure it’s making a good investment. Make sense.

During the home inspection, an inspector will examine the property for flaws. Based on the inspector’s report, the buyer will give you a list of repair requests. 

Your agent will work with you to negotiate those requests. Don’t want to be responsible for a repair? Your agent may be able to negotiate a price credit with the buyer instead. 

By the way, inspections aren’t necessarily a big, scary deal. Your agent will advise you about repairs you need to make before the inspection. In fact, she may have made those recommendations to you before you even put your home on the market. But if you’ve been maintaining your home all along, your punch list will probably be minimal.

Back when you put the home on the market, you were required to disclose the home’s material defects— anything you know about the home that can either have a significant impact on market value or impair the safety of the house. Material defects tend to be big underlying problems like foundation cracks, roof leaks, basement flooding and termite infestation.

What an inspection covers depends on the home.

But home inspectors typically look at the following areas during a basic inspection:

• Plumbing systems

• Electrical systems

• Kitchen appliances

• HVAC equipment

• Doors and windows

• Attic insulation

• Foundation and basement

• Exterior siding and paint

• Outdoor light fixtures

• Grounds

Depending on the sales contract, the purchase may also be contingent on a roof, radon and/or termite inspection. What a home inspection won’t cover is the unseen. Your inspector isn’t going to rip open walls or mountaineer the roof.

So what do you need to fix?

An inspection report is by no means a to-do list of things that you must address. Many home repairs, including cosmetic issues and normal wear and tear, are negotiable.

There are, however, three types of repairs that sellers are typically required to deal with after a home inspection:

Structural defects. Any physical damage to the load bearing elements of a home; these issues include a crack in the foundation, roof framing damage and decaying floor boards.

Safety issues. Homes have to meet certain safety standards. Depending on where you live, safety issues that the seller may have to address could include mold problems, wildlife infestation and/or exposed electrical wiring.

Building code violations. Certain violations— the absence of smoke detectors, use of non-flame retardant roofing material, use of lead paint after 1978— must be addressed by the seller.

Addressing these might take the form of a credit on the price, which in the case of structural issues could be sizable. 

Use this checklist to prepare for your inspection.

Are you ready for the inspection? Take these steps with your agent’s assistance: 

Assemble your paperwork. Transparency is key. Ideally, you’ll have summaries or invoices of renovations, maintenance and repairs you’ve done on your home that you can provide to the buyer. Create a file that collects this documentation and share it with the buyer.

Make sure your home is squeaky clean. Your home should be pristine when the inspector arrives— a good first impression will set a positive tone. Take the time to declutter and deep clean the whole house. Cleaning stuff like the range hood, upholstery and garbage cans averages $300 according to Angie’s List.

Remove any obstacles to the inspector’s access. Take measures to ensure the inspector has complete access to all areas of the property, including electrical panels, attic space and fireplaces. This may require temporarily moving clothing and other items that impede access.

Leave utilities on. For the home inspector to test items such as the stove, dishwasher, furnace and HVAC, the utilities must be connected, regardless whether the house is vacant. Otherwise the inspector may need to reschedule, which could push back closing. 

Fix minor problems ahead of time. Many cosmetic issues— a broken light fixture or scratch on the wall— are minor and easy to fix, but they can make buyers more concerned about how well you’ve maintained other areas of the home. It’s best to take care of small problems yourself— before the buyer’s inspection.

Do your own inspection before the inspection.

Some sellers choose to hire their own inspector to check the property before their house is even listed. This is called a “pre-listing inspection,” and it has several advantages:

It gives you time to fix deal breakers. Granted, a pre-inspection costs money. According to Home Advisor, a basic inspection is about $336, with condos and homes under 1,000 square feet costing a little less and homes over 2,000 square feet costing a little more. That said, it enables you to address major issues that could cause a buyer to pull out of their offer. Big problems may include mold, water damage and foundation cracks. 

It means fewer surprises and helps you market your home. Knowing what needs to be fixed in your home lets you be upfront with buyers about any big preexisting issues, which gives buyers peace of mind. You can also make it known to prospective buyers that consideration for those items has already been factored into the sales price.

It speeds up the negotiation process. Having a pre-listing inspection can reduce or even eliminate the time-consuming process of back-and-forth negotiations.

If you discover any material defects to the property in a pre-listing inspection, you are legally required to disclose them to buyers, even if you fix them. Also, there’s no guarantee that the buyer’s own inspection won’t reveal things yours didn’t find. The choice to do a pre-listing inspection is yours, but it never hurts to get a head start on repairs.

Know these tactics for negotiating repairs.

When it comes to repairs, your agent will haggle with the buyer’s agent for you, though it’s ultimately your decision as to how you want to respond to the buyer’s home repair requests.

Here are four negotiating techniques that your agent may deploy to protect your best interests without reducing the sales price:

Agree to make reasonable repairs. Unless your house is flawless— and no one’s is— be prepared to receive repair requests from the buyer. You don’t have to fix everything the buyer asks of you, but you should take responsibility for major issues.

Offer a closing cost credit. Don’t want to deal with the hassle of making home repairs? Ask your agent to offer the buyer a credit at closing for the estimated costs. This can also help you avoid complaints from the buyer about quality of workmanship.

Barter. One way to smooth things over with a buyer and keep the deal moving forward is to offer something of value that’s unrelated to the requested repairs. For example, if you know the buyer loves your couch or bedroom set, you could offer to leave it behind in exchange for making fewer repairs.

Leverage the market. You may have more negotiating power depending on where you live. In a seller’s market you might be in the position to offer the buyer fewer repairs, especially if you have another buyer eager to make an offer. 

Home inspection sounds like a burdensome process, especially when you’re so close to your goal. But when you cross it off your list, you’re more ready than ever to jump to the next level and into the next chapter of your life.

Source www.houselogic.com/sell/how-to-sell-step-by-step/home-inspection-tips