Preparing Your Home for Inspection

Preparing your home for inspection just takes a little effort and will make it easier to inspect your for sale by owner home. Generally, it is not wise to try to make any last minute repairs or to anticipate the results of your home inspection. You can do things like reattach missing or damaged gutter downspouts or replace any missing electrical cover plates. Small corrections like these may give the for sale by owner house a neater appearance, but are unlikely to affect any major findings about your drainage systems, electrical wiring, or roof system. However, there are some things you can do to prepare your home for inspection.

There are some last minute corrections that may give the home inspector clues about potential problems such as painting the basement walls to cover water stains, or using caulk to reattach loose bathroom tiles. It is always nice to make the house accessible and easy to inspect for the inspector. It won't change the material findings of the inspection, but it could eliminate unnecessary aggravations.

Some Suggestions for Making Your Home Inspection Easier

Remove all stored material from access panels that lead to crawl spaces, furnaces, electrical panel boxes and spa pump motors.
If the access panel to the attic is located in a closet, you might want to remove the clothes from the closet, or cover the contents of the closet with a sheet to protect them from insulation and debris that may fall down in the process of the attic inspection.
Dogs can complicate the inspection process and it is best to keep them away from the house during the home inspection.
A copy of various pieces of paperwork can be helpful to the inspector, such as building permits, construction drawings and contracts, utility bills, septic tank service reports, etc. These documents can be collected prior to the inspection and made available at the time of inspection. If you do not have them it is not a problem.
Be honest! Your state may require seller to disclose a home's defects by law. You must disclose information such as if your basement has leaked. You still need to disclose the problem even if you have made repairs that seem to have solved the problem.
Many inspectors perform the inspection of the for sale by owner home with the prospective buyer. This is a good time for the buyer to take a more in-depth look at the house and discuss various items that may be of concern. The seller should be absent from the house during the actual inspection, as is customary and recommended.
Inspector should obtain permission from the customer prior to discussing the inspection report with a third party. Because of this, it would be better to refrain from talking to the inspector about inspection report, unless you were the one that contracted the inspection.

Passing The Home Inspection

Home inspections do not actually result in pass or fail type grades. The inspection report of a for sale by owner home is simply an analysis of the condition of the many systems in the house. It is up to the person who contracts the inspection to determine whether the results are satisfactory. For instance, an inspection report that indicates the roof of a structure needs to be replaced immediately could be an acceptable finding to the customer who was expecting to have to do some repairs to the structure. The same report can result in major concerns for the customer who expected to have few major maintenance requirements right away.

There are very few inspection reports of a for sale by owner home that result in a completely clean bill of health for a house. There are always a few maintenance issues that must be addressed in the near future. Data on the subject suggests that the average home requires 1-2% of the actual value of the structure in annual repair and maintenance costs. Many inspection reports show a need for 2-8% of the actual value of the structure, or 2-4 years worth of normal annual repairs.

The most common items found to need repair or maintenance include:

Wood rot, which is a result of moisture and soil-wood contact in areas such as foundations, porches and decks.
Roofs and roof venting systems, including chimneys and flashing.
Bathroom floors, tubs and shower walls.
Furnaces that have not been cleaned or serviced in several years.
Outdated and unsafe electrical systems and wiring.
Gutters, downspouts and downspout drains.
Asbestos containing material, which is found in homes built or remodeled prior to 1978.