It costs a fortune to sell a house.

In fact, about 3% of its value. So in Sydney, where the median house price sits around $1m at the moment, selling your property will cost you about $30,000 (2% in commission and $10,000 in marketing/selling costs).

But many property owners go through this process without finding out what it is that they are selling. By that I mean they don’t know if their property is OK when they put it on the market.

Of course, in some cases property owners know their property has issues and hope buyers won’t notice them.

For example, this week we conducted an inspection for a buyer who had exchanged contracts and was in the cooling off period. We found active termites at the property and some extensive damage. When we told the buyer, he decided to pull out of the sale. The selling agent and the owner panicked: they have lost the sale and now have a property with major issues that need to be fixed before they can start to market it again. As to the buyer, he is relieved he decided to get the property inspected.

A fool and his money are easily parted.

In this situation, the seller is a fool because they didn’t get their property checked before putting it on the market. That mistake has cost them up to $10,000 in property marketing and the property itself might now be less marketable – news travels fast.

And the agent is a fool because they ignored the risk of a major issue torpedoing the sale. They might have worked hard to get the buyer across the line and now all that work is lost because of something completely preventable.

So, what could the owner/agent have done to manage this situation better?

Get the property inspected before putting it on the market! There are so many advantages in doing so:

1. Getting things fixed:

One of the biggest advantages is that you can improve the condition of the property if you know there are things that can be fixed. That makes it a better product to market.

2. Getting this reflected in the report:

Fixing does not mean covering issues up! It means fixing them to the satisfaction of the building inspector. And when that is done properly, the inspector can update his report to reflect the condition of the property after the repairs and maintenance have been undertaken. This process will give the owner more confidence in marketing their property and give buyers more confidence in the property itself.

3. Making the report available to buyers:

Another big advantage of inspecting your property before starting to market it is that the inspection report can then be available to buyers at the beginning of the campaign. This means buyers can carry out their checks faster and, usually, at a lower cost. But it’s very important that this process is done professionally. Find out more about that here.

What if my house has serious issues?

Some issues can’t be fixed easily – say rising damp or wall cracks – but it’s much better to know what you are dealing with and having a strategy for managing those issues with buyers. For example, wall cracks could be checked by a structural engineer.

In the case of the property we inspected this week, the owner would have become aware of the issue before spending thousands of dollars on marketing. He could have had the pest infestation eliminated by a pest controller and had the timber damage assessed and repaired by a qualified tradesperson. Once this work has been done, the inspector could have reattended the property to assess the property condition again.

It’s fair to say that most properties don’t have major issues.

And if your property is in good condition, why wouldn’t you want buyers to know that? If buyers can access better information about your property and get professional follow up support for a low fee, it is likely to be one of the better investments you can make during the sale of your house.

If you’d like to find out more about our inspection services and see how other property sellers have benefited, please click here.

Best Regards,
Michael Ferrier

At EYEON Property Inspections, we help you buy and sell with more confidence.