Time is money, and with how hot the real estate market is right now, you want to sell homes as fast as possible to make more profits. So you might be looking for steps to skip in the selling process. Because of how quickly houses are getting bought, many first-time home buyers feel they need to put in an offer for a house as fast as possible before someone else swoops in and gets it. To do this, they may offer to skip the home inspection and just take their chances that they aren’t walking into unexpected renovation costs.
As the seller, you may think that skipping the home inspection step isn’t a big deal. After all, the buyer gets to move into the house sooner, you get to sell it faster. Everyone wins. Except they don’t. Home inspections are important and could save both parties a lot of potential problems.
What is a Home Inspection?
Home inspections are non-invasive visual examinations of a property meant to reveal significant defects of a house. This can range from the foundation to the shingles to the wiring and plumbing. They can also check for mold, termites, asbestos, and more to ensure a buyer will be residing in a safe, livable home.
Home Inspections Protect the Buyer
With the exception of brand-new houses, 86% of home inspections find issues that need to be fixed. These inspections are meant to keep home buyers from discovering nasty, potentially expensive surprises with their new house. In fact, 83% of home buyers said that their mortgage lender required an inspection, so this isn’t a step they could afford to skip.
Home Inspections Protect the Real Estate Agent
Technically, pre-offer home inspections aren’t required by law yet, but there has been talk of passing bills that will make them mandatory to protect consumers. Massachusetts already makes it so you don’t have to disclose anything but lead paint and septic tanks, so it’s important for the buyer to have some sort of way to ensure they’re moving into a livable home.
On top of that, you need to remember that a lot of your business comes from referrals. If you encourage your buyers to waive the inspection and they find major issues with the property that otherwise would have been known, you may not be in legal trouble – yet – but you can be sure that your reputation will take a hit. In the world of social media, word spreads fast, and negative reviews and damning stories can go viral. That can cost you a lot of potential buyers.
If you’re determined to save yourself time on this step, consider getting a pre-listing inspection report to include with your listing. If you’re worried any deficiencies found could cost you revenue, you may want to pay to make the repairs yourself, then sell it.
So don’t treat home inspections like an easily-skippable step. They are vital to ensuring both parties get what they want in the home-buying process, and should not be disregarded.
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