Home Inspections in Lockport, IL are for Sellers
Mike Holmes, Make It Right, Postmedia News
Too many people think of home inspections as tools for homebuyers only. An inspection is a critical part of any home purchase — I’d never advise anyone to buy a home without one — but I’m here to tell you that inspections are as useful for sellers as they are for buyers.
You’re probably thinking, “Why should I pay for an inspection on the home I’m about to sell when I’m already about to pay for one on the house I’m about to buy?” I get that. Inspections cost money. They take time. And a vendor is not always legally required to guarantee the condition of a home for sale, so there’s no obligation to do a pre-listing inspection.
But there are a ton of reasons to hire a qualified, registered home inspector to evaluate your home before you list it. Here are the most important.
Set the right price
Selling a home is an emotional process. You’ve invested years of your life — and thousands of your hard-earned dollars — into those four walls. You know what the building means to you, and you have a pretty good idea of how much money you’d like to recover on your investment. Emotion, however, is the enemy of good judgment. The average seller is unable to see the real condition of his or her house when setting an asking price. Emotion trumps judgment, the seller inflates the price of the house, and the property takes ages to sell.
A pre-listing inspection can help you determine your home’s true value. A qualified inspector will go through your home and accurately assess what’s good and what’s bad about the building. Small maintenance jobs that you put off years ago may have grown into large problems. New problems may have cropped up since you last had an inspection done (which, if you’re like most people, was when you bought the house). On the other hand, expensive renovations may have boosted the value.
Source: National Post
