Buyers & Sellers: A Guide on How to Deal with Bad Home Inspection Results

Hiring an inspector to perform a pre-listing inspection is an important step in your home selling process. When potential buyers are interested in your home, they will be comfortable placing an offer when they know the true condition of the home. Buyers rely on pre-purchase inspections to give them peace of mind before moving into a home. Contact Done Right Home Inspection for a thorough pre-listing inspection for your home today.

The Process

Deciding to get a home inspection, whether you’re a seller or a soon-to-be (new) homebuyer, is an important first step in the overall process. A home inspection puts everything out on the table – including the good, the bad, and the “needs work” in the home. The home inspection process lets the seller, or buyer, know the behind-the-scenes condition of the home before any negotiations are made during the closing process. If an inspector finds any issues with the home, it is the seller’s job to truthfully notify any potential buyers of the things that need fixed.

The Results

Inspections can be scary. Typically what you see on the surface of a home turns out to be entirely different from what an inspector finds Always prepare for the worst and hope for the best possible outcome. If an inspector finds issues in your home, know that it is better to discuss the issues with the buyer from the beginning of the buying process rather than hiding it from them and face the consequences. Hiding your home’s true condition with a buyer can cause legal issues later on.

For many buyers, the thought of a home inspection causes panic from possibly having their dream home ripped away from them because of severe problems that would make the home “unbuyable” in their eyes.. No homeowner wants to deal with thousands of dollars in repairs immediately after moving in, so if the problems need immediate attention, that scenario could scare away a handful of buyers.

The Options

When an inspector uncovers issues in your home, you have two options moving forward. Option 1 is to fix the issues yourself. Option 2 is to notify the buyers of the issue and bargain a closing deal so they can fix the issues themselves after moving in. There are pros and cons of both options. If the seller chooses to fix the problem themselves, this could prolong the closing process. If the buyer agrees to fix the home’s issues, this could be more expensive depending on the bids they submit from the repair companies.

Typically when there are issues with the home that could be a substantial investment to fix, buyers will negotiate a much lower price to allow room in their budget for costly repairs. If the buyer wants to fix the problems themselves, they should submit a request for repairs and give the seller a quote based on the cost of the fixes or repairs. Overall, a compromise between buyer and seller is the best way to approach this situation.

Des Moines Home Inspections – We Can Help!

At Done Right Home Inspection, we want to help make your home inspection process simple and easy. Our pre-listing inspections can help you to increase your home’s value, ensure a faster selling process, and avoid future problems for your buyers later on. Contact us today to request an inspection for your Central Iowa property!