Home inspection checklist for sellers
The buyer's inspector is going to find it either way. This list is what you can do in the week before: give access so nothing has to be reported as not inspected, fix the cheap things that turn up in almost every report, and have the paperwork that answers the questions before they are asked.
Give the inspector access
Each of these, missing, becomes a line in the report that says "not inspected, and why" — or a second visit at the buyer's expense, which is a bad way to start.
- Utilities on: gas, water and electricity, with pilot lights lit. Systems that cannot be run cannot be tested
- The electrical panel reachable, with nothing stacked in front of it. New York requires readily accessible covers to come off
- Attic hatches and crawlspace openings clear of stored belongings
- The water heater, boiler or furnace clear on all sides
- Garage cleared enough to see the walls, the firewall and the door operator; keys or codes for any outbuilding
- Snow cleared and standing water pumped where it covers what needs to be seen
The cheap fixes that appear in almost every report
Straight from the General summary of the published sample report. None is expensive; every one of them reads as neglect when a buyer sees it in print.
- Smoke alarms on every level and a carbon monoxide alarm on the sleeping level
- GFCI protection at the exterior, garage, kitchen and bathroom receptacles
- Extend downspouts several feet from the foundation; re-grade where the ground falls towards the wall
- Garage door photo-eye safety reverse working; the house-to-garage door self-closing
- Bathroom exhaust fans and the dryer exhaust ducted to the outside, not into the attic
- The water heater's pressure-relief discharge pipe run properly to near the floor
- Loose railings, missing balusters and wide guard spacing on stairs and decks
- Grout and sealant at tub and shower surrounds
Paperwork to have ready
The questions a buyer's inspection raises but cannot answer. A seller with the paper in hand has a very different conversation.
- Permits and the certificate of occupancy for any finished attic, finished basement, extension or second kitchen — the report describes what is there, and a mismatch is what buyers' attorneys ask about
- The age and service history of the roof, boiler or furnace, and water heater
- In Suffolk or on a well: cesspool or septic records, pumping history and where the system sits; any water test results
- South of Merrick Road: the flood zone, the elevation certificate, and what was repaired or raised after 2012
- Whether the chimney was re-lined or abandoned when the heating changed, and any oil-tank removal paperwork
- Receipts for the fixes above, so the buyer's inspector sees a maintained house rather than a patched one
Or find it first
A pre-listing inspection is the same inspection and the same report, run before the house goes on the market — so nothing in the buyer's report is news to you.
- Time: a repair arranged in advance, from a contractor you chose, costs a fraction of the same repair discovered under contract
- The ability to price it in rather than concede it after an offer is on the table
- Fewer surprises that kill a deal — most sales that fall apart after inspection fall apart because of the shock, not the sum
- Not a guarantee: the buyer will still have their own inspection, and anything found you will likely have to disclose (what a pre-listing inspection buys you)
Related: Pre-listing inspection · The buyer's checklist · See a real report.
Thinking about listing?
Same inspection, same report, different timing. Ask Lou what it would take on your house.