Home Inspection Tips for Buyers and Sellers

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Inspection Tips

[00:00:00] Hey, real estate fans, Alice Lema, here, broker John L. Scott in beautiful Southern Oregon with another edition of the Weekly podcast. Today we're gonna talk about inspection reports and how buyers and sellers can be better prepared, cuz it's a very precarious time in a transaction, especially if you're not prepared.

So first I wanna address, the sellers real quick because you can be very proactive by getting an inspection report, well report, septic report, anything you need done, you can do that when you list or right before. And I really encourage people who are putting their properties on the market to do that.

It alleviates any surprises. And also we want you to start taking care of the repairs, especially if they're health and safety oriented, cuz the buyers are gonna ask for it, and sometimes the lenders ask for it. So that can alleviate a lot of problems in the middle of transaction if the seller just does the due diligence, the home [00:01:00] inspection, the well, the pool, the hot tub, the septic, whatever you need, just get it done and put it on the listings so that the buyer's agents can see it before they write their offer.

Number two, for sellers, be educated about what is considered normal in your area. So for example, in southern Oregon, it's very common to get rodents called out, spiders, especially black widows. It's very common to have roof moss on one side or a corner of your house.

Some things that are not common in southern Oregon are termites, and that is because I'm told by the termite people that our soil is not friendly to them. So if you do have some kind of damage, tunneling damage or something in your wood structure, it's not likely to be termites, but it could be some other, some other insect.

But [00:02:00] the black mold example is also not super common in southern Oregon. We're just kind of dry. You have to work kind of hard to get something icky like that to grow in your house. We do have household mildew. We sometimes have lower grades of mold if somebody's tarped their windows or just not ventilated about them or something like that. But it's usually not the scary black mold like we have on the coast. So, but the idea is just to be aware, normal for your area so that you don't wig out.

Number three for sellers, if you do get a repair addendum from your buyer, don't take it personally. I know people are very proud of their homes and then they feel like, oh, stab me in the heart. It said that I'm missing a G F I or something and it's just, just don't take it personally. Okay. It's really like getting a checkup on your house. So think of it more clinically like that. If the repairs are minor that the buyer is requesting or [00:03:00] if they're common to your area and or if their health and safety just, just do it and, and don't look back.

If it's a more extreme request. And it's, it's something that requires more education you need to get another expert out there and maybe several, then just do that. But see, this all takes time. And when you're in the middle of the transaction and at least in Oregon, the buyer can cancel the contract. Because of any of these that might make 'em jittery.

So this goes back up to number one, if you're a seller, get your inspection first. If you don't do that and you get a repair addendum, just deal with it as most recently as you can. And if it is something really big, then make sure the buyer is on board with waiting for the time it takes to get the extra evaluations.

Buyers listen, regardless of how old the house is, I encourage you to get an inspection report and a sewer scope, even if it's [00:04:00] brand new construction. We had a situation with a brand new house, and it turned out the sewer pipe was completely severed at the driveway. We're predicting the backhoe accidentally hit it a little hard when they were filling it, the driveway, filling in the driveway and then there it goes. So, sewer scopes are super important. They're not expensive. And you, even new construction, you want an inspector to go in there and look everything over cuz sometimes things have happened or been overlooked.

We've had insulation be missing. We've had windows that don't quite open. We have a Yeah, sometimes we have stoves that don't quite work, so even new construction should be fully inspected. And then going back to the Periscope, if you live in a rural property, there's still a sewer pipe from the house to the septic tank. Get that inspected too.

Okay? And if you have a septic system, consider not only doing the septic tank inspection, but do the leach line, the [00:05:00] drainage field, they can scope that as well. A lot of people opt not to do the leach field, but I say that's the time to do it is when you're buying it, just so you know. And then you can proceed with a repair request if needed. So that's number one.

Number two, just like the sellers be educated and informed about what's normal for your area, because we've had people kind of freak out about the, like the rodent thing, for example. It's just so common here. We don't even think twice about it. But as a buyer even if you've lived here for a while, you might not know that that. Super common. So again, just be aware of what is normal for your area and every area is different.

Number three, buyers don't freak out when you get when you get your report. It's not the end of the world. Almost everything can be fixed if you know the parties agree to have that happen and if it's [00:06:00] serious enough.

So it doesn't mean you have a bad house necessarily. It's just houses are houses. Real estate is real estate. And even after you purchase buyers, you should redo these inspections every so many years so you know what's going on in your house. Okay? So that's number three. Buyers don't freak out. Keep your requests limited if you can, if you can, to health and safety, things that are common for the area.

And again, buyers, if the damage is severe, you might wanna consider terminating. Even if it is, like I said, something fixable, cuz. A lot of construction can be repaired, but you might not want that house. So termination is definitely an option, especially in a state like Oregon that's very buyer-centric.

So I've got three tips for buyers, three tips for sellers having to do with inspection report. Little bit of commonality in there, but the, these investigations are super, super important. So [00:07:00] please don't ever, don't ever waive your inspection even if you're a contractor. But if you're a contractor and you're licensed and you do this every day, there's less risk, but it's still nice to have another pair of eyes.

Right. And sellers, get your inspection up front. You'll be so glad you did. That's our podcast for today. Have a beautiful weekend. Hug those you love. We'll be back next week.