Seller Inspections are inspections performed either before or during the listing period on behalf of the seller.
Benefits to REALTORS:
You can recommend me, a certified InterNACHI inspector, to do the inspection as opposed to being at the mercy of buyer's choices in inspectors.
Your sellers can schedule the inspections at their convenience, direct with me, with little effort on your part.
Your sellers can assist me during the inspections, something normally not done during buyer's inspections.
Your sellers can have me correct any misstatements in my reports before I generate them.
My reports help sellers see their homes through the eyes of a critical, third-party, thus making sellers more realistic about asking price.
I will alert you to any immediate safety issues I find before other agents and potential buyers tour the homes I inspect.
Repairs made ahead of time might make your listings show better.
My reports provide third-party, unbiased opinions to offer to potential buyers.
My reports can be used as marketing tools to help sell the homes.
My reports might relieve prospective buyer's unfounded suspicions, before they walk away.
Seller inspections eliminate buyer's remorse that sometimes occurs just after an inspection.
Seller inspections reduce the need for negotiations and 11th-hour renegotiations.
Seller inspections relieve you of having to hurriedly procure repair estimates or schedule repairs.
My reports might encourage buyers to waive their inspection contingencies.
Your deals are less likely to fall apart the way they often do when buyer's inspections unexpectedly reveal problems, last minute.
My reports provide full-disclosure protection from future legal claims.
Benefits to Sellers:
- You can have me, a certified InterNACHI inspector, do the inspection rather than be at the mercy of the buyer's choice of inspector.
- You can schedule the inspection with me at your convenience.
- I might be able to alert you to any items of immediate personal concern, such as radon gas or active termite infestation.
- You can assist me during the inspection, something normally not done during a buyer's inspection.
- You can correct any misstatements in your inspection report before I generate it.
- The report can help you realistically price your home if problems exist.
- The report can help you substantiate a higher asking price if problems don't exist or have been corrected.
- My report will reveal problems ahead of time which:
- might make your home show better.
- gives you time to make repairs and shop for competitive contractors.
- permits you to attach repair estimates or paid invoices to the inspection report.
- removes over-inflated buyer procured estimates from any future negotiations.
- My report might alert you to any immediate safety issues found, before agents and visitors tour the home.
- My report provides a third-party, unbiased opinion to offer to your potential buyers.
- A seller inspection permits a clean home inspection report to be used as a marketing tool.
- A seller inspection is the ultimate gesture in forthrightness on your part.
- My report might relieve prospective buyer's unfounded suspicions, before they walk away from your home.
- A seller inspection lightens negotiations and 11th-hour renegotiations.
- My report might encourage your buyer to waive the inspection contingency.
- Your deal is less likely to fall apart the way they often do when a buyer's inspection unexpectedly reveals a problem, last minute.
- My report provides you with full-disclosure protection from future legal claims.
Myths about Seller Inspections:
Q. Don't seller inspections kill deals by forcing sellers to disclose defects they otherwise wouldn't have known about?
A. Any defect that is material enough to kill a real estate transaction is likely going to be uncovered eventually anyway. It is best to discover the problem ahead of time, before it can kill the deal.
Q. Isn't a home inspector's liability increased by having his/her reports be seen by potential buyers?
A. No. There is no liability in having your seller permit someone who doesn't buy the property see your report. And there is less liability in having a buyer rely on your old report when the buyer is not your client and has been warned not to rely on your report, than it is to work directly for the buyer and have him be entitled to rely on your report.
Q. Don't seller inspections take too much energy to sell to make them profitable for the inspector?
A. Perhaps. But not when the inspector takes into account the marketing benefit of having a samples of his/her product (the report) being passed out to agents and potential buyers who are looking to buy now in the inspector's own local market, not to mention the seller who is likely moving locally and in need of an inspector, plus the additional chance of re-inspection work being generated for the inspector.
Q. A newer home in good condition doesn't need an inspection anyway. Why should the seller have one done?
A. Unlike real estate agents whose job it is to market properties for their sellers, inspectors produce objective reports. If the property is truly in great shape the inspection report becomes a pseudo marketing piece with the added benefit of having been generated by an impartial party.
Q. Don't seller inspections and re-inspections reduce the number of buyer inspections needed in the marketplace?
A. No. Although every inspection job a InterNACHI member catches upstream is one his/her competitors might not get, especially if the buyer waives his/her inspection and/or the seller hires the same inspector to inspect the home he/she is buying, the number of inspections performed by the industry as a whole is increased by seller inspections.