After the Inspection

 After the Inspection

By

Annette Bergman

We moved out of our home in September, 2012 and some health issues kept us from putting it on the market until December.  We listed with a REALTOR and the only offer we received was the last of April and was 10,000 less than asking price, after a price reduction. My husband wanted to accept the offer just to get the house off his mind.

When the inspect was done there was two and a half pages of things the Buyer’s inspector found wrong with the house and the  Buyer walked.

My husband had a stroke shortly after that and was in the hospital so a friend and I went to work on the house and repaired or replaced all but three things I felt were out of line and one thing the inspector wasn’t as informed as he thought he was.  So a total of four things were not done that I felt were over the top.

So my friend that we hired, fixed GFI plugs, he did some electrical work, and a bunch of small things that were on the list. He replaced a back door, painted three rooms and a hallway an off white. He painted the front porch and the rear porch with a new textured paint with a ten year warranty. And power washed and painted the garage floor.

 I worked on the landscaping and got the flower beds cleaned, edged the landscaping and driveway and  our friend trimmed some bushes. I added new plantings and bark to another flower bed. Cleaned the floors and washed some windows. The total cost was $495.00 for the materials for the improvements.

Our listing had expired so I held three open houses by myself with just directional signs to the property.  No newspaper ad, just signs saying when the open house would be held. I had at least six couples or singles come through the open house and wrote an offer two days after the last open house for $9500.00 more than the first offer that we had accepted.

The moral to the story is that an inspector was paid for by the Buyer and we had a list to work from and increased our profits by over nine percent on the property and of course we didn’t have to pay a REALTOR’S fee so there was another savings.

If you are going to put your house on the market it would be best to have an inspection first so you won’t lose your first buyer. After selling real estate for over thirty years I can assure you that your first offers will be your best; providing the house is good condition.

If we had done all of the repairs on our home before we put it on the market chances are we would have had an acceptable offer a lot sooner for a higher price months before we did.

My husband wanted to give our friend and helper a bonus for his fine work, but he was called out of town before he knew we sold the house. Hope he’ll come back in town to collect his bonus. We really had an excellent friend ad helper.