Preparing your home for inspection helps you find property conditions that can affect the value of your home when negotiating with realtors and potential buyers. Finding problems early on allows you to handle repairs on your own terms, instead of facing difficulty with making repairs on the buyer’s terms.
Preparing for an inspection also helps improve your odds of selling your house within a shorter time, since a clean, tidy home is more aesthetically pleasing to potential buyers.
If you’re ready to sell your home, here are six things to look for before the inspector shows up at your door.
Make Doors, Rooms, and Hallways Accessible
A home inspector needs complete access to your entire house, including the attic, basement, crawl spaces, gates, furnace, all bedrooms, and the garage. Clear all furniture and objects from hallways and entrances to rooms so the inspector can comfortably do his or her job without having to move your personal belongings.
Clean the Interior and Exterior
A clean, tidy home gives the impression that you know how to take good care of your property as a homeowner. Dust, vacuum, and tidy up your belongings before the inspector arrives to make your home look clean and functional with no signs of neglect. When preparing the exterior, remove all dirt and debris from gutters, wash all windows, and trim trees, bushes, and roots away from your home’s foundation.
Check Your Home Appliances
The inspector will test all major appliances included with your house, such as the washer and dryer, dishwasher, oven, stove, thermostat, and heating and cooling system. Remove all laundry from your washer and dryer, remove pots and pans from your stove, and take steps to make sure your HVAC system is in good working condition.
Gather Home Paperwork
Collect all paperwork associated with home repairs and maintenance, including plumbing receipts, roof and chimney repairs, past inspections, and insurance claims. These types of documents prove to the inspector that you have addressed major problems in your home when the need arises.
Secure All Pets
Place all pets and animals into cages or crates as necessary before the inspector arrives at your house. This prevents your pets from distracting and interfering with the inspector during the home inspection process.
Replace Light Bulbs
Do a walk-through of your home before the inspection to check for and replace faulty or burned out light bulbs. This allows the inspector to confirm all lights and fixtures are in optimal working condition without having to question whether fixtures and wiring need repairs.
A general rule of thumb when preparing your home for inspection is to make the home look and behave like it first did when you moved in. This means cleaning the home’s interior and exterior, replacing light bulbs, having HVAC filters cleaned and repaired, testing smoke detectors, and repairing windows, doors, and plumbing fixtures. The better you prepare your home for inspection, the better luck you’ll have at selling your home.
This guest post is written by JT Ripton, a freelance writer out of Tampa. JT writes on a myriad of topics, real estate and home improvement being a couple of them. You can follow him on Twitter @JTRipton
