Pre-listing inspection: find it before the buyer’s inspector does
The buyer’s inspector is going to find it either way. The only question is whether you hear about it now, with time to decide, or three days before closing with a price reduction attached.
A pre-listing inspection is the same work Lou does for a buyer, run before the house goes on the market. Roof, structure, foundation, electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling, the envelope, and the parts of the building people stop noticing after living with them for twenty years. Thermal imaging is included, as it is on every inspection.
You get the same detailed report, with photographs, that a buyer would get. What changes is who is holding it, and when.
Time. A repair arranged in advance, from a contractor you chose, at a price you negotiated, costs a fraction of the same repair discovered under contract with a closing date in the way.
The ability to price it in. Some things are not worth fixing. Knowing about them before you set an asking price is very different from conceding them 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. A finding you already knew about and can talk about calmly is a different conversation.
It is not a guarantee. The buyer will still have their own inspection, their inspector may reach a different view, and anything found here you will likely have to disclose — your attorney will tell you exactly what. Lou’s job is to make sure nothing in the report is news to you.
Lou inspects. He does not quote the work, and he does not take a fee for sending you to someone who will — New York forbids referral fees in connection with an inspection, and that rule is worth knowing about. The report has no incentive built into it.
Thirty years in residential and commercial construction before he was an inspector is what makes the difference here: he can tell you which findings are genuinely worth addressing before listing, and which ones a buyer will read, understand and move past.
Thinking about listing?
Book the inspection before the photographs, not after the offer.
See a real report, what an inspection costs, or everything Lou inspects.
Photographs from real inspections
Real photographs from Lou’s own inspections, chosen because they show a building component and nothing that identifies a property or an owner.