Very soon one of our team members will be reaching out to you to let you know when the buyer would like to schedule their home inspection. Don’t worry, your home does not have to be show-ready. So here is a shortlist of tips that you can do to make your home inspection go well.
Prepare for a Home Inspection Tips
Most home inspections take about 3 hours and the buyer and their agent will attend and they would prefer that you did not attend, but it’s totally up to you. We’d be happy to attend the inspection for you and answer any questions that the buyer or the inspector has about your home. Keep in mind that in the state of Colorado, there is no licensing or certification required to be an inspector, so don’t be surprised if they ask for things that actually may not really be valid. That happens all the time. These are some of the typical things that they will do during the inspection. They’re going to check out the plumbing, electrical, roof, the furnace, and the air conditioner if you have it, all of the included appliances. So that means you need to give the inspector and your buyer’s access to those systems. You have to move stuff around, make it happen.
The most common items that get identified as being deferred maintenance on an inspection are to clean and service the furnace, change the filter, vacuum it out. Or you can hire a professional to do that. Clean and service the fireplace, whether it’s wood or gas, you want to make sure that that’s already taken care of. And you can do this in advance on the electrical box. Double tapping, which is two wires going into one circuit in the panel. Those are considered safety issues. So you can address those in advance and just look in your panel and see. Missing outlet covers, light switches that don’t work. Sometimes the inspectors may actually pop a circuit breaker. So watch for these things after the inspection. They don’t mean to but are they’re all over the house. They’re also looking for gutter extensions. Peeling paint on the outside. Broken fence posts are your smoke detectors up to date. Most inspectors say they’re no good after 10 years, carbon monoxide detectors have to be in place within 15 feet of the entrance of the bedrooms, your sewer system.
Most of the newer homes have what’s called a sewer clean-out that if they’re going to scope the sewer line and make sure it’s clear, they can just do that. But on the older homes, I have seen inspectors actually pull the toilet, scope the system and put it back without replacing the seal. So I think they should do this with permission. They also test for radon gas sometimes, so they’ll close up the home for 2 days. What radon gas is the natural radiation that emanates from granite decomposing? It’s in about half the homes in Colorado Springs. If your radon levels are high, more than 4 Picocuries, that’s the measurement. It could be considered to be a health hazard. The fixed for that, it costs about $1,200 and this is something that you could test for in advance. Roof conditions, so especially these composite shingle roofs with all the hailstorms that we have, it’s one of the most common and the highest ticket items that we have to repair prior to closing.
We can provide you with some great trusted vendors to do all of these things, but we have some roofers in particular that will come out and do a free roof certification and check it out. Just to give you peace of mind, GFCI’s, which are ground fault circuit interrupters. You know the outlets that when you plug in a high powered blow-dryer they pop, in today’s code, all of the areas that have are within 6 feet of water have to have GFCI’s. But that’s not true for older homes. So sometimes inspectors will try to impose today’s building codes on older homes. Don’t worry, we’ll fight for you. And keep in mind the buyer is just trying to make sure that the home that they’re buying is okay. This is not the time for them to ask for upgrades. And once the inspection is complete, we will get a notification in writing about what are the items that the buyer would like you to address on the home inspection. It is not a to-do list for the seller, but we’ll help you through all these things. And this is where we come in to negotiate what’s right and what’s not.
And if at any time you have any questions or concerns, you can call our office at 719-301-1802 our team is used to dealing with these issues all the time.
Call Barb Schlinker To Sell Your House For Top Dollar
If you’re looking for the best realtor in Colorado, look no further than Barb Schlinker and our team at Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty - Barb Has the Buyers Team. We’ve been in the real estate business for a little over 27 years and have handled thousands of successful home sales.
We’ve earned a reputation as the top-performing real estate team in the area for a reason. According to the data, we sell homes 66% faster and for $20,520 more money than our competitors.
On top of that, we offer a unique Guaranteed Sale Program that makes selling a home with us a risk-free and stress-free experience.
To learn more about working with us to sell a house in Colorado, reach out to us today at 719-301-1802. Get ready to start packing!