Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Most realtors who have worked with a certain client for a long period, ensuring all their needs and questions have been met, often dread the home inspection time. You certainly know that there are plenty of ways a deal can fall apart after an inspectors report is given.
One of the most common realty deal killers is the home inspection. However, this doesn’t have to be a realtor reality. To prevent it from becoming a deal closing disaster, you can employ a bit of know how and prepare accordingly.
After all, houses have some risk level involved, but you can easily evaluate and mitigate the home buying risk factors. Take a transparent approach and maintain a realistic expectation, stay flexible, and turn home inspections into a non-anxiety filled moment.
The following four certified home inspection coaching hacks for realtors can serve as your roadmap to inspection success.
1. Have Clients Get A Pre-Sale Certified Home Inspection
Plenty of people selling a home leave the pre-sale inspection to the buyers, which is could be a big mistake. When home buyers request an inspection, the sellers could have very little time to make needed repairs to keep the sale moving forward.
But if a home inspection is done prior to the home being listed on the market, the seller can get ahead of timely repairs, thus controlling expenses for the repairs needed, and ensuring the home buyer’s inspection goes smoothly.
Both the sellers and the buyers usually wait too long before getting a certified home inspector onboard. For optimal deal closing results, realtors can nudge the inspection process along earlier for sellers and buyers.
2. Encourage Sellers To Prepare For Certified Home Inspections
When home owners fail to prepare their home for the inspection, bad things can happen, from costly repairs found to annoyed inspectors. Certified home inspectors shouldn’t need to navigate past christmas boxes and junk to inspect an attic.
Same goes for accessing areas that are usually under lock and key. For locked areas, ensure the home inspector has total access, whether you’re there to open areas yourself, or if you simply want to give the them the keys.
It is optimal for sellers to be home to meet inspectors. They can meet, get to know each other a bit, and exchange contact details. Hiring professionals to do home repairs also decreases the chance for repeat inspections.
Sellers who choose to DIY or have repairs done on the cheap might get bad, or even slow moving work done, which could have a negative impact when the home inspectors return to follow-up. It could even result in more repairs, and further inspections. Coach your clients on the importance of a one and done home inspection.
3. Have Your Clients Attend The Inspection
It’s not mandatory to be present at the inspection, but it’s better to be there and prepared for anything the home inspector needs, or has questions about. Also, reading the detailed report given by the inspector may not be sufficient for home owners to get a clear idea of what needs to be done.
Some people not even understand the report itself. There have also been cases when inspectors deny inspections due to home owners not being present. You and your clients should show up, even if everyone needs to spend a few hours at the property.
Being there may give you insight into why an inspector has marked certain things, because you can pick his or her brain with questions, if they are open to it. When choosing an inspector, try to find a good fit.
They should be friendly, open to suggestions, and happy to have you tag along during the inspection. Don’t let your clients hire a home inspection deal killer.
4. Do Homework On The Certified Home Inspector
Many sellers and buyers hire certified home inspectors based on recommendations alone without doing any research. This is a mistake. Take into consideration the following when it comes to hiring a home inspector:
• Number of years the home inspector has been on the job
• Number of inspections the inspector has done
• Inspector’s qualifications, training, and certifications
• Previous job before becoming a home inspector
Wrapping Up . . .
Encourage clients to choose a certified and professional home inspector who is knowledgeable, friendly, and happy to help. This will ensure inspection success. Check the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) as well. Have you ever had a deal fall apart due to a failed home inspection? We want to hear about it, and how you overcame the issue, so it never happened again.
Good article, It is always best for sellers to get a pre-inspection before listing the house. However after being a 20 yr member of ASHI and the BBB i would say only 5 percent do. However after being a contractor for 35 plus years we are allowed to give contractor referrals most of the the repairs are minor and all things are fixable.
Great article I agree always looking for a home inspector is vital when purchasing that new home, even a new build. Often minor problems are over looked by the average home buyer. The skills of a thourough home inspector can save you the consumer thousands when it comes to locating things that would be hard to identify with the naked eye. Personally I like to recommend to my clients to use my complete thermal package and even locate those hidden water leaks behind the walls that would be hard to see with the naked eye. From Janzen Home Inspections.