Agents are unaware of the marketing power of having their listings pre-inspected.
If I were an agent, I would require all my listings to have a seller’s home inspection. That way, other agents with buyers would know ahead of time that my listings are not going to have surprises typically associated with a home inspection, and we just need to agree on the price! It will also help to validate the asking price, or help the owner to realize that repairs need to be performed, or the price needs to be lowered. Or, as an agent, he or she may choose to limit their time with this listing if the home inspection reveals problems and the seller doesn’t want to address them or lower his price.
The seller or homeowner thinks that nothing major is wrong with the home.
As a home inspector, I have often heard a seller say that “I have lived here for 15 years and nothing is wrong with my home.” Many home owners do not realize things that may be wrong with their home. There are many areas typical homeowners never see in their homes that could have problems (attic, chimneys, under floor spaces, wiring, water intrusion, etc.). But times are changing, and sellers that say no to a seller’s inspection before putting their home on the market have been surprised when the buyer came along and ordered an inspection. These buyers are now becoming sellers again and realize what a home inspection can do and how the timing of it can affect the price.
The economy says it’s time.
Sellers are many and buyers are few. Many times the sellers are competing with homes for sale on the same street or in the same neighborhood. In order for a listing to stand out in a market saturated with buyers, it needs to catch the buyer’s attention. The two most popular ways to do that is price and value. In order to determine the price, one must look at the value first. Here is where a pre-sale home inspection can justify a home’s listing price and support value to the inspected home on that street or neighborhood.
The seller’s inspection program positions you upstream from the rest of the home inspectors.
The home inspector who performs a seller’s inspection immediately cuts-off his competitor before the competitor has a chance to be considered to inspect that home. It’s true that some buyers will still elect to have their own home inspection, which is good for the home inspection industry. Still, most buyers over time will trust the seller’s home inspector because of the integrity and thoroughness of his or her report. It’s like the fisherman on opening day who knew which hole was stocked full of trout. He was upstream from the rest of the fisherman, and filled his creel to the limit while the fisherman downstream from him competed against the others for the remaining trout.
Bob Beisbier, owner of BK Home Inspections, is a Certified Master Home Inspector who has been providing professional and thorough home inspections in southeast Wisconsin for over 12 years. Bob is Infrared certified, DILHR Certified, and provides Home Energy Tune-ups, Environmental Data Reports, Pre-sale Home Inspections and Pre-offer Home Inspections.
