Sell your House Faster and make a bigger profit in the Bargain

Pangs of selling a house with no Home Inspection

Are you are tired of giving a guided tour of your house and repeatedly watch prospective buyers make faces as they look into your broken sink or when they spot a damp mark on the wall? Wouldn’t you like to sell it double-quick and at a good price too?

Remedy

What exactly should you do to ensure you sell your house ‘double-quick’ & at a good price?

POV – Change your ‘point of view‘

The first thing is to put yourself in the buyer’s shoes. To do that, walk in as if you are the buyer and go through each room to find what you approve of and what you won’t.

For instance, if you find that the tiles of the steps just as you enter into the portico are cracked, you know that you have created a poor impression even before you have stepped into the house. You may think that it is a small matter costing a few hundred rupees and which anyone could easily get it done.  But the point is that it all adds up to give a sorry repute about the quality and level of maintenance of your house.

Then what?

Now note down all such defects and check how much it would cost to set it right [if you are not sure, there are professionals who do this for you]. This one time cost may not be high but the impact on the buyer when seeing something flawed gives an unfavorable impression, the cost effect of which will, not only be high in relation to what caused it, but also have a long term repercussion. Think of yourself as conducting a Home Inspection and look for all major and minor details just as a regular Home Inspector would. It is not just the cosmetic points but also the more serious ones such as any dampness on the wall or ceiling that should be jotted down.

Don’t let a  ‘damp squib’ derail your efforts

Dampness at any location will have an underlying cause and this needs to be addressed to resolve it once and for all. Often, you the seller is not qualified enough to identify hidden defects such as a leaking pipe which could have caused dampness at a different location that at the source of the leak. This calls for the service of a regular Home Inspection Agency.  Put both these inspections together and it will be seen that all or almost all the issues have been identified. The onus is now on the Owner to decide on the extent to which they would like the issues to be set right. Remember that little things matter – a broken window pane, leaking taps, a cracked tile in the bathroom – all these add to the general impression.

It could happen that the seller is of the view that he cannot be bothered to take all that trouble to set each and every matter right and may be willing to offer a discount for those small defects. But the issue is not as simple as that because in the mind of the buyer the cost of repair always gets inflated to take into consideration all that could crop up later. Hence the best way would be to take a little more time and trouble to set right all matters so that the Home Inspector sent by the seller will find very few defects, if at all.

Ta-daaaaaa

Instead of it being a tense situation, one could sit back and watch the Buyer’s Home inspector search for non-existent defects. Even if a few were found out, it would be a simple affair to set them right. Sometimes the seller may dispense with the services of such an Agency altogether when the excellent condition of the house is seen.  And the deal may be struck earlier than expected.