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Many sellers are getting inspections done prior to listing their homes so they can determine if there are any deficiancies that need attention. Often times, after a home has been lived in for several years, there are things lurking that we cannot see-mud in the crawlspace, termites, furry friends living in attics…

Agents will tell you that it’s a good idea to have the home inspected to find and correct these problems before the house even gets to the market so that you can show prospective buyers that you are not only a responsible homeowner but that you have corrected many items that typically come up during the option period (some people refer to this as the inspection period). Remember that if you choose to do this, Texas law requires that you provide the written inspection to a prospective buyer.

In fact, if your home goes under contract and the buyer has the home inspected and you as the seller receive a copy of the written report, you are required to disclose that report to a subsequent buyer, if the sale with that buyer were to fall through, for example.

It is important to remember that when serious items arise, such as safety hazards (usually electrical), foundation issues, plumbing leaks, vermin and roofs come up in an inspection, it is usually best to try and negotiate as much as possible with the buyer. In most situations, any buyer will ask you to repair or compensate them for these items so it makes sense in this market to be as open to these repairs as possible. If not, you risk losing the buyer and having to start the process of finding a new buyer all over again just to have the same items come up during their inspection.

To learn more, visit the Texas Real Estate Commission’s website (TREC) at http://www.trec.state.tx.us/questions/faq-enf.asp#Cat26.

Tags: east dallas home inspections, east dallas homes, home inspections, real estate inspections, selling a home in dallas, selling a home in east dallas, state of texas home inspections, what to do before selling a home

Posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Homes for Sale. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.