How Can a Pre-Listing Inspection Save You Money Down the Road?

The Richmond Metro Real Estate Journal

Selling your Richmond area home? Get a free home value report

Buying a Richmond area home? Click here for full MLS access.

As the spring real estate season moves into full gear, there is no better time to discuss pre-listing home inspections and how they can benefit your home sale.

First, what exactly is a pre-listing home inspection? If you have ever purchased a home, you had a home inspection done as part of your due diligence before purchasing. The goal of the inspection is to find any structural defects with the home, the repairs of which are discussed during negotiations. While it's not all that common for sellers get an inspection done on their home before listing it, we highly recommend it.

Typically, buyers will go out and pay their own contractor to give them what's called a cost-secure for any defects that are identified by the inspector. We have found that it's much more cost-effective for the seller to hire their own inspector and contractor. Fixing the problems found in the home inspection just prior to or just after listing will save you money, plain and simple. In fact, we've found that in many cases, you can fix problems for half the cost of what the buyer would have you spend.

In general, a pre-listing inspection gives the seller a good deal of leverage when it comes time to negotiate with a buyer. The pre-listing inspection is part of our home selling package, and we have seen great results with it! If you have any questions about this topic, or if you need real estate assistance of any kind, give us a call or shoot us a quick email. We would love to hear from you!