Avoiding a second negotiation on your home sale

Most buyers include an inspection clause in their offers so that once they agree on the price of the home with the seller, they have the opportunity to hire an inspector who will go through the home and look for any defects or concerns about the home that are not readily apparent from the buyer's visual inspection of the home. The inspector will check all the systems in the home (heating, electrical, plumbing) and will go where most of us don’t, in the attic and crawl space, looking for indications of problems.

Once the inspection is complete, the buyer has several options including asking the seller to repair any defects found or even terminate the contract if they choose. While it is reasonable for a buyer to ask for defects to be repaired and it is reasonable for the seller to agree, there can be times when the buyer and seller disagree on the severity/cost of repairs and the seller finds themselves in a second round of negotiations on their home after they thought everything was already settled. 

The downside for the seller is that if the buyer chooses to terminate the contract during the inspection period, the home will have to go back on the market. Future buyers will know that there had been an agreement for sale and then something fell apart. They will generally assume the worst and think there is a serious defect with the home when maybe it was just a buyer that got cold feet. A home can lose 3 – 4% in value when something like this happens.

So how to minimize the risk of a buyer walking away from an agreement? Have the home pre-inspected by a professional inspector before it goes on the market. You generally will want to fix any significant defects that are found and then make the report available to any buyer who wants to write an offer. The buyer can review the report, see you have proactively addressed the defects, and will have more confidence in the condition of your home. Most buyers will still want to have their own inspector evaluate the property but there should be few, if any, surprises that might cause the buyer to back out of the sale. 

Having the home pre-inspected is a simple and easy way to avoid the risk of having to go through a second round of negotioations. Feel free to contact me for more smart selling strategies to maximixe the value of your home.