Should we have our house inspected?

[Dash man]

I was wrong in the above advice! I asked my (excellent) real estate guy a few days ago about whether I should have my present home inspected when I put it on the market, and his answer was "Yes". That surprised me!

He indicated that an inspection by me could allow us to fix surprise major problems in advance. The little stuff can be used for negotiating, I suppose, since I have seen him do that. However the house has to be habitable so any previously undetected major problems do need to be fixed.

If they aren't fixed in advance, then any lengthy resulting delays that such problems might cause could mess up a sale in the event of a less than patient buyer. Or that was the impression I got, from what he said.

A little integrity can go a long way in a sale too. It shows you're not intentionally trying to hide something. It's sad seeing how many people don't want to inspect ahead of putting it on the market hoping it will be missed by a buyer.

 

[sengsational]

Would such an inspection typically uncover an addition that didn't get added under a building permit? IOW, a discrepancy between what the city had vs reality? For example, say a deck was added by the homeowner without a permit.

 

[photoguy]

In the bay area, it's typical (or at least common) to get an inspection done first and provide it to all potential buyers. I assume this helps when you are likely to get multiple offers. Obviously though, bay area real estate market is not like many others.

 

[tryan]

It depends on how "hot" your market is .... Point being, if you received multiple offers you wasted not only the inspection fee but the repair costs too.

If you are in a buyers market ... yes do the inspection and consider the repairs. I pay $350 - 400 for a inspection.

 

[athena53]

A little integrity can go a long way in a sale too. It shows you're not intentionally trying to hide something. It's sad seeing how many people don't want to inspect ahead of putting it on the market hoping it will be missed by a buyer.

It's a tough world out there. We've kept our house in good repair and are unaware of any major problems. We were extremely unlucky to have found that a drain in the basement was running slowly due to years of mineral build-ups last week (just before house went on the market) and paid $3K to fix it even though no inspector would ever have found it and certainly no prospective buyers would known. We have contracts for regular HVAC servicing and termite protection.

Having said that- I once spent $8K to put in French drains when I could finally afford it in the basement of a house I bought. The sellers had said there might be "a little water" in the basement if you didn't keep the gutters clean. I had them cleaned religiously and still had to mop out the basement any time it rained heavily. When I looked for my next house, I had the inspector look really hard for any signs of water damage. He thought he saw mold, and a mold inspection revealed stachybotris. The sellers' "disclosure" said there were no water problems. (We passed on that one.) The house with the wet basement had the built-in microwave, the pool filter and the gas grill all die within 3 months of closing.

So, I've been on the receiving end of house problems, known and unknown to the sellers. DH and I won't hide anything we know about but if a buyer gets an incompetent inspector, that's their problem. I'm not going to pay to find problems for them.