Protect Your Sale Before the Home Inspection

By Bryan David

Bryan David is one of the best REALTORS® serving Ocean Springs, Biloxi, Gulfport and the entire coast. He is a Biloxi native, military veteran and retiree, and a multi-year top-producing agent with hundreds of satisfied clients.

Worried that the home inspection could be the thing that kills your deal? It’s one of the most common fears sellers carry into a transaction, and most of what rattles a buyer during an inspection is preventable.

A little preparation ahead of time keeps your sale moving and keeps small surprises from turning into big ones.

Start with the basics inside and out. Declutter the home, clean it up, and make sure the inspector can reach every area. If you have had any major repairs done recently, gather the documentation and give it to your agent, including receipts for anything significant. That paper trail reassures a buyer that the home has been well cared for.

Walk the exterior with a critical eye. Rotten wood is one of the first things an inspector flags, so check the soffits, fascia, and door jambs, and if anything feels soft, have a handyman cut it out, repair it, and repaint. Replace damaged or missing roof shingles. Make sure the breaker box is accessible by trimming back any bushes crowding it, and cut back tree limbs that hang close to or over the house. Even small items matter, like torn or missing window screens, which are inexpensive to replace and easy for an inspector to note.

Move room by room inside. Replace any burned-out or missing light bulbs, because an inspector will see a dark fixture as broken, and it goes straight into the report. Tighten leaky faucets, check the drains under your cabinets for drips, and replace the batteries in every smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector. None of these are expensive on their own, but left unchecked, they pile up fast.

A long list is what scares a buyer most. The goal is to keep them from opening a report with fifty or a hundred little items on it. That kind of list makes a buyer nervous because it looks like the home hasn’t been cared for, even when the issues are minor. Clear out the small stuff, handle the big stuff if your budget allows, and if you cannot address something, disclose it. Honesty protects the deal far better than a surprise ever will.

A couple of final things to keep in mind. In most cases, you will not be home during the inspection, so plan to be out of the house while it happens. And remember who the inspector is working for. The buyer is paying them, not you, so they are going to be thorough and more than a little nitpicky. They will note every small thing in that report to protect themselves, and that is simply how the process works. Knowing it going in keeps you from taking the findings personally.

If you are getting ready to sell on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and want help making sure your home is inspection-ready, we would love to help. Reach out to 228-215-1861 or bryan@expectrealty.com, or visit expectrealty.com. And even if you are outside our market, give us a call, because we have a large network of agents and are always glad to point you toward a great one.