Blog Uncategorized What Real Estate Agents Should Prepare For When Doing Home Inspections

What Real Estate Agents Should Prepare For When Doing Home Inspections

Home inspections are essential to buying and selling homes, safeguarding both buyers and sellers. They certainly should never be skipped over, especially in a transaction as significant as purchasing property!

Understanding the whos, whats, whys, and wheres of these inspections is essential for real estate agents to facilitate smooth negotiations and ensure their clients stay happy and informed.

Here, we’ll discuss what real estate agents need to prepare for ahead of an inspection, including how to keep your client in the loop. We’ll end with some eye-opening horror stories that show why home inspections are so necessary!

Key takeaways

1. Home inspections are an important step in the home-buying process and should never be skipped. They are vital for ensuring the buyers know the condition and safety of the property before agreeing to purchase it.
2. Specialist inspectors should undertake home inspections, but real estate agents should accompany them throughout and take notes on what they assess.
3. Real estate agents should communicate with their clients what to expect from the home inspection process, why it’s important, and discuss the findings and how they can be used in price negotiations.

What are home inspections for?

Home inspections are a precaution that ensures potential buyers are aware of the condition and structural integrity of a property they want to purchase.

They are comprehensive visual appraisals completed by a certified home inspector that examine the quality, value and safety of a home for sale. Undertaking this assessment means that potential buyers can gauge whether a property meets their requirements and understand how much work and money it might require to get up to standard. To sum up, home inspections reduce the risk of nasty surprises coming up post-sale and uncover a property’s actual value.

Real estate agents should not conduct a home inspection themselves – this is one for the seasoned home inspector experts – but we recommend attending the inspection itself. This is because you get to see what the inspector is seeing and help relay any information from the inspection to your client. This helps build trust and any potential legal trouble down the line. Here, you can act as the interpreter of the inspection, guiding your client through the assessment results and making recommendations based on what was found. This can include price negotiations and what types of repairs to prioritize.

Are home inspections mandatory?

Home inspections aren’t a mandatory legal requirement in any US state but are a vital step in the home-buying process. Buying a property without undertaking a home inspection is risky and could result in a client spending more than they expected in the long run.

What do real estate agents need to focus on with home inspections?

When accompanying a home inspector during a home inspection, a real estate agent should understand what is being inspected, why it’s being inspected, and the impact these inspection areas can have on a home’s safety, quality, and value. This means you can relay this information to your client post-assessment. Areas you should pay keen attention to include:

• Structural components, including all ceilings, floors, doors, roof, windows, interior and exterior walls
• Heating and cooling systems
• Other plumbing, water and sewage systems
• Electrical systems
• Fire safety
• Pest and mold damage

As a rule of thumb, think about structure and safety. The assessment here isn’t so much about cosmetic appearances, although some of what is listed above can look pretty unappealing. The evaluation might also involve taking a closer look at areas that might appear okay from the outside. Think of things like quick-fix paint jobs covering mold damage. The goal here is to gauge the actual state of the property, which means you might have to be in full-detective mode along with the home inspector!

 

What do real estate agents need to tell their clients regarding home inspections?

Along with attending the home inspection itself, real estate agents have a role in guiding their clients through the process. This starts way before the inspection by recommending local, trustworthy home inspectors or home inspection agencies for the client to choose from. This means you can work with someone who is an expert in what they do, ensuring that the information gathered from the inspection is accurate and reliable.

The next step in working with your client is to discuss what to expect during the home inspection. This includes the time frame, what the inspector will be assessing, and the impact this can have on the home-buying process. Clear communication throughout the home inspection process means that the client knows exactly what’s going on and feels confident asking you questions they may have.

After the home inspection, real estate agents can interpret what was found and make recommendations based on these. You can discuss and prepare with your client any negotiations you can make on their behalf and what to expect in the next step in the home-buying process.

 

Genuine home inspection stories from real estate agents

Sometimes, a home inspection is precisely that—a home inspection. However, more often than not, a home inspection can make you feel like you’re walking into Area 51—not knowing what to expect. Some real estate agents and even home buyers have seen many unexpected things during home inspections. Some of these are weird, crazy, scary, and even funny!

Recently, we asked a few experts about the craziest things they’ve seen during home inspections. You wouldn’t believe some of the things these experts had to say. Talk about red flags!

Here are nine stories from real estate agents that show why home inspections are necessary.

Story one: A home inspection turned creepy

A real estate broker, Deborah Ann Spence, disclosed the creepiest thing she’s ever encountered during a home inspection. It completely blew her mind!

“The craziest thing that I found at a home inspection was a cat split in half on the kitchen floor. I felt as if I jumped out of my skin. It was terrible. It was cruel and disturbing. And then the home inspection was over before it even started. The buyer did not purchase the home,” said Deborah.

 

Story two: A Detective On The Job 

Stan Mead has had his Texas real estate license for almost a decade now, and he recounts how he became a detective once during a home inspection. 

“We were very surprised to find dozens of old license plates behind some drywall during a recent home inspection. It left us wondering if the home had previously been owned by an auto-theft mastermind!” he said.

“The incident was reported to the local police. Agents should always report suspicious findings to the proper authorities, and clients need to do the same. It is also important not to disturb anything that looks like evidence of a crime,” said Mead.

As it turns out, detectives and home inspectors sometimes have a similar job.

Story three: The Tale Of Stuffed Pet

Nathaniel Hovsepian owns The Expert Home Buyers and has had his Florida real estate license for more than four years. During a home inspection, he revealed the craziest thing he’s ever found. It was unexpected. 

“The craziest thing I have found during an inspection was an owner’s pet that had been stuffed and put into a kitchen cabinet (all of our crazy stories relate to expired animals, in fact). I learned that you should be on your toes and expect anything. Part of doing an inspection is looking through every nook and cranny, and you never know what you might find,” said Nathaniel. 

 

Story four: A Ghost Story

Do haunted homes exist? We’ve heard hundreds of stories about ghost-ridden houses. But are they true stories or just imaginations running wild?

Melanie Johnson of Fantastic Service Group had a ghost-ridden house experience during a home inspection, and she found something unusual in the crawl space.  

“Once we had an inspection job in Melbourne. The property was old, classical, and pretty much well maintained over the years. However, the owners kept complaining about strange noises coming from beneath the house; they even thought it was ghosts or something,” explained Johnson.  

“The inspection went pretty standard until the inspector got to the crawl space beneath the house. There, he found a large colony of rats living uninterrupted. It was so crazy and so difficult to get rid of them, the owners will probably remember this for the rest of their lives. It caused them a lot of losses, and the house was very difficult to sell,” he said.

 

Story five: The Out-Of-Sight Home Defect

Sometimes, homeowners try to play smart by marketing a home without full disclosure. Luke Smith, founder of We Buy Property In Kentucky, shares his experience about unearthing a hidden home defect before it was too late.

“We tour homes all the time that seem perfectly fine from what the eye can tell. However, one time, we found that the entire septic had backed up and was full,” he said.

“The owners had recently moved in with a family member and reached out to us to purchase that home, but failed to inform us of the septic issues. Had we not gotten the inspection, it would’ve been thousands of dollars to repair that we didn’t budget into the renovation,” said Smith.

 

Story six: A History Lesson In Liquor Dealing

Eugene Romberg owns the company We Buy Houses In the Bay Area and has had his California real estate license for almost seven years. He narrated how he found an unusual treasure during a home inspection.

“One time – I had purchased a home that was home to a known prohibition liquor dealer, and as I inspected the house – I was trying to find anything that can recount some of the history of the home before remodelling it. What I found was some great treasure – the home had an unopened bottle of liquor from the prohibition days within the crawl space underneath the house – and they wernear-perfectrfect condition!” said Romberg.

“Real estate agents should learn about the history of the build of the home, and they can give advice to their clients who they’re selling for – to research and find out quirky things about their home. Sometimes, it pays to be a history buff – and in this case, the “proof” was in the crawl space,” he said.

 

Story seven: How To Never Miss A Thing

Dan Edmonson, founder and CEO of Dronegenuity, revealed how he used technology to uncover what would have been difficult to spot.

“Infrared and thermal inspections can be a huge value-add. After wrapping up a near-perfect inspection, we noticed moisture in the basement walls. We concluded that improper plodding allowed the neighborhood sewer to potentially flood this basement. Real estate agents should always require infrared cameras to inspect for historical water damage that will not otherwise be noticeable,” said Edmonson

 

Story eight: Spots You Should Never Miss During A Home Inspection

It’s easy to overlook some spots during a home inspection because of the general curb appeal of the home. However, a clean and beautiful home doesn’t always indicate that the property is perfect.

Aaron Zombo of EverDry Toledo reveals what he learned after a “wild” experience: he ran into this massive snake in a crawlspace.   

“It’s important for an agent to keep the basement, crawlspace, and foundation in mind when working on selling a home. It holds so much value to the rest of the home. An area that often goes overlooked, we also inspect the crawlspace or basement to ensure the home is as healthy as possible, especially for those trying to sell their home,” he said.  

“If a homeowner hasn’t been down to their basement or crawlspace in a while, we would encourage them to do so or have us out to check up on any signs of mold, cracking, dampness, and other symptoms of an unhealthy foundation,” explained Zombo.

Story nine: Expect The Unexpected

Kathleen Kuhn, the CEO of HouseMaster, has seen just about everything. Her business specializes in home inspections, and she discusses some of their biggest surprises.

“We have found everything from a tiger housed in a garage, to many hidden treasures, including cash,” Kuhn said.

“What is most surprising about home inspections however is how little buyers understand about the home inspection process.  For example when conditions are found as part of an inspection, buyers often ask the home inspector if the seller will fix the concern,” she said.

“Home inspectors are not in the position to identify what if anything a seller fix or pay for. Ideally a buyer should understand that the findings on the inspection will be reviewed with their real estate professional to determine next steps.”

Conclusion

As we’ve explored in this guide, encouraging your client to complete a home inspection on a property they’re interested in buying is a critical part of the home-buying process. These assessments indicate potential issues, which can help clients navigate whether the property is right for them and confidently leverage negotiations if they wish to proceed with a sale. It can also relieve a client if they learn that the property they’re interested in gets a clean bill of health!

Real estate agents who take an active role in the home inspection process build trust with the client, which can lead to long-term reputational advantages, which can only benefit your business in the long run.