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75% is my goal this year in 2025. I would love to see a minimum of 75% of my listings go on the market with a pre-inspection report.
This means that before a home is listed, we hire an impartial 3rd party to come evaluate the structural & mechanical integrity of the home. They provide us with a full report (often times around 50 pages) of every little nitty-gritty thing that’s wrong with the house. We then offer up this report in its entirety to prospective buyers so that they know all of the flaws upfront.
The method to this madness has so many benefits… let’s look at a few:
- If anything comes up on the report that is surprising, this gives the sellers a chance to correct it prior to it hitting the market.
- If the report is honest, thorough & performed by a reputable inspector, buyers don’t usually get their own inspection & they accept the information presented.
- If the buyer decides to get their own report, their inspector has to find NEW information to be able to terminate or renegotiate.
Let’s play out some scenarios if a seller decides NOT to get their home pre-inspected.
Scenario #1: Nervous Nelly
Nervous Nelly is a first-time home buyer. She views your property & all parties negotiate an offer. When she gets her home inspection, the report is actually pretty clean! There are a few smaller items here & there, but nothing major. However, Nervous Nelly is very apprehensive & scares easily. She doesn’t even attempt to renegotiate & terminates immediately over some very insignificant items.
Now, you’ve lost your buyer. You put your house as active again on the market & other buyers see that you had an offer fall through. Some buyers see this as a red flag & don’t even request a showing.
A flighty buyer like Nervous Nelly is not a great buyer. If you would have had a pre-inspection report, she would have decided to pass on even making an offer. Then you wouldn’t have missed out on other, more reasonable buyers who were looking while the house was under contract.
Scenario #2: Normal Norman
Normal Norman is a very rational, down-to-earth buyer. You come to terms with his offer, & he gets his inspection report. There’s a lot of things on the report that would concern most buyers, but Normal Norman isn’t bothered at all by the information. It’s nothing he can’t handle.
However… towards the end of the report, the inspector notes that it looks like there’s been some shifting on the basement wall & suggests an evaluation be performed by a structural engineer.
Normal Norman is pretty forgiving, but a shifting foundation is understandably a deal-breaker for him. He terminates. You’re now left with having to disclose this information to all other potential buyers (likely deal-breakers for them, too) & drastically reducing the price of the house OR, getting a structural engineer to the property & paying for the fixes that they recommend.
But… you’ve already lost your buyer & have to now disclose to future parties that he walked because of the foundation concerns.
Scenario #3: Penny Pincher
Penny Pincher is excited to move forward with your house, & she’s also an excellent negotiator. She plays hard ball, & you come to terms 10% lower than your asking price. Then she gets her inspection report. She doesn’t terminate, but she gets bids for all of the items on the report, & is standing firm requesting an additional 15% off of the property.
You now have to decide to either risk a termination or get to the closing table at 25% lower than your original sales price.
If you would have had a pre-inspection report, the original price you negotiated would have been the sales price of the house. You would have closed on the property 15% higher if you had disclosed the report upfront.
In the hundreds upon hundreds of transactions that I’ve done, each buyer is either a Nervous Nelly, Normal Norman or Penny Pincher.
A pre-inspection prevents the Nervous Nellies from even making an offer. You want a solid buyer who is in it to get to the closing table. Nervous Nellies just derail that process.
A pre-inspection gives you a heads-up on any major issues so that you can address them beforehand. That way, when Normal Norman comes along, the house is in a very acceptable condition that is appealing to a rational buyer.
A pre-inspection takes away the buyer’s negotiating power. It doesn’t give the Penny Pinchers out there much ground to negotiate a lower sales price or repairs or additional credits.
Now, I know that it doesn’t feel good to see 50 pages of flaws on your home, but if you’re looking to be proactive… if you’re looking for ways to stave off terminations… if you’re looking for the best way to keep your initial sales price intact… the pre-inspection is the key to doing just that.
It’s a $600 insurance policy to get to the closing table efficiently & with as much cash in my pocket as possible. If I were putting my own home on the market, I wouldn’t do so without including a pre-inspection report.
I’m Always Here & Happy to Help!
Katina Hunter
Team Lead for the Katina Hunter Team with Coldwell Banker
724-888-9020
Katina.Hunter@PittsburghMoves.com
