Key steps for preparing your house for a building inspection: Michael Ferrier
Are you getting ready to sell your house?
It can be a busy and emotional experience that can seem quite intrusive. You will receive advice from your selling agent about the appearance of your home and advice about making it as appealing to potential buyers as possible.
This advice is important because you want to make your property look at its best to maximise its marketability. Just as you would polish your car before trying to sell it, you must also make your house sparkle.
However, agents may not give you as much advice about preparing those parts of the house that buyers don’t see when they visit your property. These areas include the area under your house, in your roof space, on the roof or in some storage areas and outbuildings like a storage shed or garage. These areas are also important parts of your house for buyers, even if they might not inspect them personally.
Just as the mechanical condition of your car is vital to the marketability of your vehicle, the condition of your house is very important to buyers. In fact, even more so because, unlike your car, there is no annual roadworthy certificate or used car warranty available to the buyer of your house.
In the same way a vehicle inspection report can be a useful marketing tool for your car, a building and timber pest inspection report from EYEON can provide strong marketing benefits for your property. It will make it quicker, easier and cheaper for buyers to be in a position to make an offer or bid on your property. It also demonstrates that you are being transparent about selling your property. You can find out more about this option here.
Even if you choose to wait for a potential buyer to request an inspection, it is important to have your house ready for the arrival of a building inspector. The points below can be used as a checklist for making your house inspection ready.
Sub-floor areas
Ensure that any access points to the sub-floor area of your house are unlocked and clear of any obstacles.
Remove any stored items or debris under your house so that the inspector can safely enter the sub-floor areas to inspect the foundations, drainage and underside of flooring
If there is no access point to the sub-floor area, please think seriously about installing one.
If the inspector cannot access the sub-floor area for any reason, it will be noted in the report. The inspector also needs to point out that there may be defects in that area and recommend that access be gained to the area. Inability to access this area is frustrating for inspectors and buyers and can create doubts in their minds. What would you think if you were a buyer?
If your house is built on, or just above, ground level or on a concrete slab, then an inspection of the area will not be possible.
Furniture and floor coverings
Where possible, give the inspector access to inspect the condition of internal flooring, particularly wooden floors.
The inspector is not permitted to move furnishings or floor coverings to undertake the inspection due to the risk of causing damage to furniture or floors/walls. By properly uncluttering your house, it will make the inspector’s job easier and help to make the report more complete for any buyer. An incomplete report can cause doubts in the mind of buyers.
Internal roof space
Where a roof void exists in your house, please ensure that the inspector can gain reasonable access to enter the roof.
Please remove any stored items from the roof space
Where possible, please vacuum the area to remove or reduce dust that builds up over time. This makes the inspection easier and more complete but also reduces the risk of dust entering your house during the inspection.
Please arrange the removal of old items such as redundant water heaters that can become a hazard over time and make the inspection more difficult to complete.
External Roof
Where possible, make it possible for the inspector to access the roof from a 3.6 metre ladder. On two storey properties, access may be possible from a second storey balcony or terrace.
Where it is unsafe to access the roof, the inspector will need to assess the roof from a distance. This may affect the quality of the report.
Recent Works
If recent maintenance or repair work has been undertaken it will help the inspector if invoices or other records of the work undertaken are made available. It is possible that some reference can be made to this evidence in the inspection report. This information could be valuable to buyers.
Renovations
If you have renovated your house, please make it easy for buyers and the building inspector to confirm that your renovations have been approved by the appropriate authorities. A building inspector will note the renovations and point out to readers of the report that approvals need to be checked. Why not make this information available to the inspector so it can be noted in the report. Also make the approval available for buyers. It gives them comfort and confidence and saves them time.
Other inspections
If you are undertaking work at your property in preparation for sale, specific tradesmen may be able to undertake an inspection of specific areas of your property. In particular, inspections of specialised systems like plumbing and electrical can add value for buyers as these systems do not form part of a building inspection report. It is illegal for such inspections to be undertaken by anyone other than a licensed plumber or electrician. EYEON offers plumbing and electrical inspections and reports.
Summary
As a vendor, think about the type of information you’d like to see if you were a buyer. Better information for buyers provide powerful marketing benefits for your property and make it much easier for buyers to have the confidence to decide to buy your house. Making an inspection report easily available to buyers at a low cost is a great way to improve engagement with buyers.
Michael Ferrier is managing director of EYEON.
