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I am nervous too- our buyer's inspection is Tuesday. They are doing a stucco test, which I have never heard of but i guess is pretty common, sewer scope, radon and standard inspection. This house is only 3 years old and we are sticklers for maintenance but I am still nervous about some problem I'm not aware of. I feel like in this market, people could get cold feet and use any little thing in the inspection to get more money or to back out. THe inspection on the place we are buying is next week, they likely have more to worry about as it was built in 1969 and they are original owners so I suppose that too, gives us an out if something falls apart on this end.
Our realtor basically told us to leave during the inspection here. It seems pretty common to have the seller leave here.
Carolina Chick, what helped me out is doing a search on this forum for "home inspection tips" and on google. I printed out a honey do list for my husband and myself so we are trying to take care of any little things that may become issues- caulking touchups, wood filler, cement touchups, and doing things like cleaning out oven and dishwasher and dryer. It may not make a difference but at least those little things I'm aware of won't come up.
I think the most important thing to remember as a seller is that there will likely be SOMETHING on the home inspection report that ticks you off - some insignificant, nit-picky thing that just gets your goat. Sometimes it'll be something that doesn't even belong the repair request - for example, I sold a condo and one of the repair items was "crickets in the crawlspace" - it was a condo, and the crawlspace was common area, not something I was responsible for. Some other favorites are a missing tub drain stoppers, door stoppers not installed (because we had just finished painting) and goofy things like that.
I will say that I was pleased with my home inspector yesterday - he was thorough, but there wasn't anything overly nitpicky on his report (in my opinion at least!). I also did not ask the sellers to repair everything on the report - it's a 20-year old house, I don't expect it to be perfect. I'm hoping they will realize I'm trying to be reasonable, and do the same!
As a seller I have always been present for the inspections. My house, I will be there. The last house I sold neither the buyers or their agent showed up for the inspection, but the buyer's agent had given the inspector the lock box combo. No way I am going to have some stranger crawling around in my house unattended.
As a buyer I have never been present for the inspections. That is what I am paying the inspector for.
As far as being nervous, don't sweat it. The reality is that the inspector will find something and the buyer will either ask you to fix it, ask for $$$ off at closing to have it fixed, or will decide they can live with whatever it is.
As a buyer I have never been present for the inspections. That is what I am paying the inspector for.
Isn't it interesting how different people's viewpoints are on inspections? I got a lot of great information from the inspector yesterday, and it was well worth the ~3 hours I spent at the house.
With regard to "No way I am going to have some stranger crawling around in my house unattended" - are you also present when your house is shown? I'm just curious...
With regard to "No way I am going to have some stranger crawling around in my house unattended" - are you also present when your house is shown? I'm just curious...
Mostly no. I have been there for 1 showing due to horrendous weather. I made myself scarce (with the large dog) while the PB's were looking. There was one other time when I headed out with the dog and the PB's waited for me to come back so that I could show them how something worked. The buyers who came during the awful weather were the ones who ended up buying the house.
I think there is a difference when there is the PB and an agent, theirs or mine, in your house for a few minutes as opposed to a lone person for several hours.
Our house was inspected by the buyers's inspector a few weeks ago. DH was at work but I was home.... with 2 kiddos.... we just kept out of the way as much as possible but stayed available if there were questions. The buyers didn't seem to mind. In fact, I was able to fill them in about the area a little which was great. The inspector they hired was so good that I hired him to inspect our newly constructed home. He found things we missed so we're so glad it worked out the way it did. BTW, for all those buyers of new construction homes....... have your own inspector check it out. It's well worth the $$$.
Location: Halfway between Number 4 Privet Drive and Forks, WA
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We had to be home for our inspection as we were FSBO. I stayed in the dining room, writing bills and filing papers that had piled up. If they needed to ask or tell me something, they came to me. The wife pulled up a chair and we talked for a long time. It was very casual and the inspection went well. The inspector was there for 3 1/2 hours and went over everything with them, but they only had very few minor requests when he left.
I didn't attend my last home inspection. No stress.
My (seller's) agent was there and fielded all the questions.
I think it's bettter not to be there so the buyer has every chance to go over the house freely -- no chance of complaining afterwards that they didn't have the opportunity to look at everything carefully.
Never had a problem with that and none of my buyer's every complained about it. The inspector knows what they have to do. They are going to get their job done whether the seller is around or not.
As I was thinking back, I do remember one time now when the buyer was not present for their own inspection. The inspector had to ask ME a lot of questions...so I'm glad I was there.
As for the question about being present during a showing. The answer is yes. I am always home. I may go outside or something..but I am always home.
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