The Home Inspection is not a repair list for sellers. Sellers are not required to produce a perfect house. This is not required by law or contract. Sellers are required to disclose any know defects and use a Transfer Disclosure Statement to disclose all that they know about the home and list those items on this questionaire. There are some legal obligations which the seller is responsible for. These include earthquake straps for water heaters and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to be placed in specified locations.

The seller is not required to produce a Home Inspection and many times this inspection is ordered by the Buyer and if the seller does not have an inspection up front a can of many problems can be opened.

Suppose a Seller lists the property for $500,000 and then the buyer orders a Home Inspection and it is discovered that there are some major problems. Now the entire sales process stops because the buyer has a duration of time to make inspections and then to ask the Seller for repairs. If the Seller knew about the problems then the home could have been better priced to reflect Home Inspection issues.

The purpose of the inspection is not to corner the seller with a repair list but when many problems are discovered the buyer suddenly feels many items must be repaired.

I will not list a home unless the Seller is willing to obtain an inspection before the home is listed on the Multiple Listing Service. We then make the inspection public and available when the home is listed. Of course, the buyer can also order an inspection but it is rare that something new is uncovered with the second inspection.

If the Seller gets a Home Inspection up front and takes care of reasonable items the sale will close quicker, smoother and every one will be happier.