Over the last few years, about 20% of homebuyers have been skipping home inspections when buying houses. They’ve done this to make their offers on homes look more attractive to sellers since the real estate market has been red-hot.
But generally speaking, most homebuyers are going to want to have a home inspection done prior to purchasing a house. It’s the only way for them to know that they’re making a smart investment in a home.
For this reason, you need to know how to prepare for a home inspection if you’re going to be selling a house soon. You should also be familiar with what happens at a home inspection so that you’re all ready to go when the time comes.
Today, we’re going to touch on what you can do to prepare your house accordingly for a home inspection. It’ll help you figure out how to pass a home inspection with flying colors.
Continue reading to check out our guide on how to prepare for a home inspection.
Clean Up Any Debris on the Exterior of Your Home
Some homeowners make the mistake of thinking that a home inspector is only going to inspect the interior of their home. But more often than not, a home inspector will start by evaluating the exterior of your home.
With this in mind, you should walk around the exterior of your home and clean up any debris that exists. You should dispose of leaves, sticks, and garbage that might make it difficult for a home inspector to analyze the outside of your home.
If nothing else, doing this will make the exterior of your home look a whole lot better than it does. It’ll give a home inspector less of a reason to get an up-close-and-personal look at something like your siding.
Make Sure Your Home’s Roof Is Easily Accessible
Replacing the roof on a home can be very expensive. It’s not uncommon at all for it to cost upwards of $10,000 or more.
Because of this, a home inspector will definitely want to look at your home’s roof while inspecting your house. It’s why you’ll need to make sure that your roof is as accessible as you can get it.
You won’t have to worry about leaving a ladder out for a home inspector or anything. They’ll bring a ladder along with them in many cases.
But you should see to it that they have a place to put their ladder so that they can get to your roof with ease.
Test Out All of Your Home’s Interior and Exterior Doors
After a home inspector is finished looking at the exterior of your home, they’ll make their way inside. They’ll get there by walking through one of your home’s exterior doors—and when they do, they’ll usually stop to see how this door works.
A home inspector will also put all the other doors in your home to the test. They’ll want to see that these doors open and close in the way that they’re supposed to.
As you’re figuring out how to prepare for a home inspection, you should pay close attention to all of the interior and exterior doors in your home. You want them to open and close like normal so that a home inspector doesn’t flag any of them.
Replace Any Lightbulbs That Have Burned Out
Once a home inspector starts walking through your home, they’re going to flip every single light switch that they can find. They’ll do this to make sure that your lights work as intended.
If you have any lightbulbs that have burned out on you, you should replace them prior to your home inspection. Otherwise, a home inspector might be led to believe that certain light switches aren’t in good working order.
Replacing lightbulbs might seem like a small step in the grand scheme of things. But it could be the difference between you getting a great report back from a home inspector and you being forced to make electrical repairs that may not be necessary.
Check to See That All of Your Electrical Outlets Work
In addition to checking to see that all your home’s lightbulbs are working properly, you should also plug things into all your home’s electrical outlets to put them to the test. This is something that a home inspector is going to do, so you won’t want to turn a blind eye to any non-functioning electrical outlets.
Replacing one or two electrical outlets isn’t going to cost you all that much money at the end of the day. But it would prevent you from giving homebuyers the impression that there is some kind of electrical problem in your house.
You might want to go as far as to hire an electrician to come into your home before an inspection to examine your electrical system as a whole. They can get it into great shape so that you don’t have to worry about your electrical system getting flagged during a home inspection.
Fix Any Obvious Plumbing-Related Issues
Another thing that a home inspector is going to look at closely during a home inspection is your house’s plumbing system. Leaking water can obviously be a big problem for a homeowner, so they’re going to do their best to identify any plumbing-related issues you might be having.
You should start by looking at your home’s water meter to see if it’s moving when you have all the water turned off in your home. This could suggest that you have a plumbing leak somewhere that needs to be addressed.
You should also walk around and turn on all your faucets one by one to see how your sinks drain. If you have slow-moving drains scattered throughout your home, you’ll want to try to fix them so that they drain like usual again.
This is another instance in which it might make sense to hire a plumber to visit your home to test out your entire plumbing system. They can help you pinpoint any potential problems that might appear on a home inspection report.
Clear the Area Surrounding Your HVAC System
During a home inspection, a home inspector is going to take a good, long look at the HVAC system in a house. This system plays a huge part in the overall comfort of a home, so it’s important for it to be evaluated from top to bottom by a home inspector.
You should clear out the area surrounding your HVAC system so that a home inspector can get to it easily. You should also stick a fresh furnace filter in your HVAC system and provide a home inspector with HVAC maintenance records if you happen to have them.
You want to show homebuyers that you’ve done your part to keep your HVAC system up and running. It’ll help you avoid having to deal with the headaches that can be caused by any HVAC concerns that homebuyers might have.
Arrange to Have Your Own Home Inspector Take a Look at Your House
Home inspections can be very scary for homeowners because they’re never quite sure what they might uncover. You might be stressed out to some degree in the days leading up to a home inspection even if you don’t think there are any major issues in your home.
To get around this, you might want to kick around the idea of hiring your own Tucson home inspector to inspect your house. For just a few hundred dollars, you can get the peace of mind that comes along with knowing your home is in great condition.
You might even be able to convince homebuyers to skip doing their own home inspection if you can provide them with information from the home inspector you hire. It’s a really good idea to get all your ducks in a row by doing a home inspection yourself in advance.
Knowing How to Prepare for a Home Inspection Is Important
In a perfect world, all homebuyers would waive their rights to home inspections and make the home-selling process easier on sellers. But of course, most homebuyers don’t feel comfortable doing this.
That’s why you need to know how to prepare for a home inspection. You should start getting ready for a home inspection as soon as you accept an offer from a homebuyer and know that they want to have a home inspection completed.
Want to know the answer to the question, “What does a home inspector look for?” Browse through our other blog articles for more home-related articles.