PRE-LISTING INSPECTIONS

If you currently own a property that you are considering putting up for sale, the benefits of having a thorough professional inspection BEFORE listing the property with a Realtor are numerous and significant. In the last five years, pre-listing inspections have become our fastest growing type of inspection service requested, with many more prudent property owners/sellers, and/or their respective diligent real estate listing agents, calling and scheduling inspections before placing the home on the market. In contrast to the typical "wait and see what the buyer's inspection turns up", we are advising you to take a pro-active stance and posture.

In our post-inspection contacts with clients, they have indicated that having a pre-listing inspection has served to significantly smooth out the overall sale process when the property was eventually put up for sale, a buyer was found and the property entered and completed the escrow process. Specifically, we have been informed by clients of the following benefits as a direct result of the listing inspection:

1. Gaining much better knowledge about the property conditions, resulting in far less "surprises" (read: unknown deficiencies turning up in escrow), and anxiety as a result of the buyer's inspection report. For example, on properties that have had extensive alteration, remodels, additions, etc., do you know with certainty that the work was completed properly and (especially) safely? (Yes, your buyer WILL be bringing in their own inspector!)

2. Knowing ahead of time what repairs (if any) would be prudent and cost-effective to complete before listing. That is, what corrections would make the property show better?

3. Having the benefit of more time to locate qualified contractors and handymen to make repairs, at reasonable rates (i.e, not having to pay extra for "rush" service), as tradesmen can somtimes be booked far in advance.

4. The increased knowledge gained from the pre-listing inspection helped to provide a much more complete and honest seller's disclosure (TDS) of the property. This proved to communicate and instill to the buyer the seller's good faith to disclose something rather than hiding information thereby paving the way for smoother and more agreeable negotiations and increased trust between the parties in the transaction.

5. The information provided by the pre-listing inspection served as a valuable additional tool to help set/adjust a realistic and competitive sale price for the property.