8 Top Tips from a Home Inspector for Selling Your Home

Your home inspector could either make or break your real estate deal. 

Your home inspector will be looking at nearly every aspect of your home from top to bottom, left to right, inside and outside and everything in between. Some of the things your home inspector will call out will be minor and may not be required to seal the deal of the home, or may be major changes to the home that are required for the purchase to be completed. In the real estate world, these are deal breakers. 

We’ve put together 8 tips to help any future home owner ensure a successful inspection of their home. 

1. Make sure all areas of the home are accessible. This includes the basement, crawl space, attic space. All bedrooms and indoor spaces. All outdoor spaces are also required to be inspected as part of the home inspection. 
2. Triple check everything. You need to review everything repeatedly to make sure that you haven’t missed anything or left anything off. Check that you and your real estate agent have reviewed everything you needed to, to see that the deal of your home was a successful one. Your home inspector will also be able to provide you a preliminary list of things that you should be looking at. 
3. Check the gutters and the roof. These two areas are critical areas of inspection by a home inspector and can potentially be a deal breaker in the real estate deal. If you feel that these areas need to be improved prior to your home inspection; have a company that specializes in roofing and gutters to come out and check those two aspects. 
4. Allow the inspector the time to do their job. Don’t rush your home inspector; give them the time necessary to review your home thoroughly. The home should be emptied of all guests, pets or other individuals not necessary for the home inspection. 
5. The house should be in fully operational condition. All utilities should still be turned on and operational for the home inspection. There should be no issues with utilities during the home inspection. 
6. Declutter your home. When there are things around your home that are cluttering up views, home inspectors aren’t able to get a full view of the home and work their way through the 1,600-item checklist that is required by the National Association of Home Inspectors.
7. Review a guide of what home inspectors look for. There are plenty of home inspector guides that you can download for free with a simple google search. Reference this guide and ensure that key components of the home inspection are checked on your end prior to the inspection. 
8. Don’t try to conceal known issues. If you are aware of any issues; do not conceal them. If they cannot be fixed prior to the inspection; let the home inspector know that you are working to fix those issues ahead of time. 

Your home inspection is critical to the success of your real estate sale. Following these tips will help to ensure that your home inspection is not one of the 1 in 20 deal breakers in real estate transactions in North Carolina. Always be aware and flexible with your home inspection.