Okay, after months of consideration, you have finally decided to put your home on the market. However, instead of hiring a professional real estate agent or broker, you want to do it on your own to avoid the high cost of commission. For Sale by Owners or FSBO have become increasing popular over the years and for good reason. While a FSBO requires real hands-on dedication, it is a great solution for many people.
Now, if you are a buyer looking to buy a FSBO, which ultimately can save you money too, you need to remember that you would not have the benefits of a real estate agent. Typically, you would work with a realtor who would provide you with guidance on what is and is not a good buy. For instance, if you were to look at 10 homes with your real estate agent, he or she would then go over each house with you in detail, advising you of potentially large or expensive problems. However, if you choose to buy a FSBO, you no longer have this added protection.
Therefore, you need to make sure the home is inspected by a professional, someone that will be looking after your best interest. This person would crawl up into the attic to make sure there were no broken beams, and he or she would check the basement to look for any cracks or water damage, as well as focusing on all aspects of the home’s structure, mechanical, and construction systems. After the completion of the inspection, the professional would provide you with a list of all repairs, both big and small.
For the items listed that are small, usually nothing would need to be done. In this case, you would simply be made aware. On the other hand, if the inspection list has large or high dollar repairs, the seller would likely need to make those repairs before a lender would finalize a mortgage loan. Let us say you were going with an FHA loan but the stairs of the home have no handrails. By FHA guidelines, while installing rails would not be expensive, they would be required.
If the inspector were to discover that the basement had at one time or another leaked water, you could have it put in the contract that the seller has to have this checked and if the problem were severe, repaired. At this point, the seller would have the option of agreeing to the repair to make the sale or not. However, if the seller chose not to have the leakage checked and/or repaired, selling the home would be very difficult. While hiring an inspector could cost you between $200 and $500, especially when buying a FSBO home, it is a worthwhile investment for your protection.
Remember, all the items agreed upon between the buyer and seller to be fixed would be listed in detail in the contract. That way, there would be no misunderstandings or discrepancies come time to sign the final papers at closing. The bottom line is that an inspection gives you a way out if you decided the home had too many serious problems to deal with so always make sure you have a home of any type checked.