Three truths about prelisting inspections

I will be putting my mom's house on the market and I was wondering if I could obtain the home inspection in advance?

Yes, you can obtain an inspection on your mother's home before you put it on the market. Given the way mortgage lending guidelines have tightened up and the fact that appraisal and condition issues are killing a larger number of transactions than at any time in memory, obtaining prelisting inspections differentiate your home from the overwhelming competition and boost your home's chances of selling by helping satisfy prospective buyers' concerns.

Three things you should know about prelisting inspections before you order one.

1: Prelisting inspections won't make the deal, but they can help optimize your chances of closing the deal. Buyers are not going to buy a house they wouldn't consider otherwise because it has reports, but if they are debating between your mother's home and another property, a clean bill of house health, documentation that needed repairs have been completed, or even reports showing what needs doing and a corresponding discount can help push buyers off the fence.

2: Having prelisting inspections may change your disclosure requirements. You do not mention whether your mother has passed away, but if so, and you are selling her home on behalf of her estate, you could very well be exempt from the property disclosure requirements. However, once you obtain prelisting inspections, you will have a legal duty to provide information about any defects turned up to prospective buyers.

3: Your prelisting inspection won't replace the buyer's inspections. To be clear, whatever inspection you obtain won't be the inspection - it will just be an inspection. You will want to advise the buyers that the prelisting inspection is for their information only. You do not want the buyer to rely totally on it and forgo their own for liability reasons. You want the buyer to still obtain their own inspections, so they can attend, ask questions, select the inspector and not fault you for anything that is missed.

Jennifer Grayson is president of the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors

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