Surprise, the home inspection revealed problems
Just about every buyer who purchases a home in the Charleston South Carolina real estate market obtains a home inspection. Buyers have the right to have a home inspection and then ask the seller to make the requested repairs. If you are selling your home, you should know that condition is increasingly important to buyers today.
Maybe it's been a slight inconvenience to have a leaky faucet and you haven't wanted to fix it yourself or call a plumber because it's not that big a deal. There are some buyers who won't be bothered by it either, knowing that they can fix it or they plan to replace the old fixture and put a new one in that won't leak anyway.
And how about the water that has always seemed to run out of the shower/bathtub in a secondary bath has affected the tile and a few have cracked and you never really got around to fixing it and it didn't seem like that big a deal either. Sure, the buyer may notice and like the leaky faucet, maybe they plan on putting new tile down so it really doesn't matter.
But what if that water has gotten into the sub flooring which has now deteriorated and must be replaced because the home inspector was in the crawl space below the house and noticed the more serious problem.
With current market conditions, a seller is fortunate to find a buyer for his home. In general, the buyer is going to offer less money than the asking price. An agreed upon price is ultimately negotiated. Maybe you're happy, maybe you're a little disappointed. But what happens when you receive the repair request from the home inspection and you are surprised to find out that there are several major problems with your home that will cost you serious money to fix or the sale will fall through.
When you agreed to sell, you expected to net a certain amount of money but if you have to pay for some serious and unexpected repairs, you're going to net even less in the transaction. Or even worse, the buyer may no longer want to buy your house because they are frightened by some of the problems that are discovered.
But there is a simple solution.
Don't wait for the buyer to ask for a home inspection but get a home inspection before you put your house on the market. At that point, you can either make the necessary repairs or price it based on the real condition of your house. Either way, there won't be any last minute surprises.
Many sellers are addressing cosmetic issues by getting rid of clutter, improving the curb appeal and some are even staging their homes in order to make them stand out from all the competition. Why not have your home inspected before putting it on the market so you don't get caught by surprise on the path to closing.