Pre-Marketing Home Inspection

The Inspection Shark waits until after the buyer and seller agree on a price, then reveals the problems. Now the buyer demands repairs, a price cut, or both, and often walks. Thousands of dollars gone, at the worst possible moment.

The fix is simple and almost no agent does it. Inspect the home before it goes on the market, while there is still time and leverage to handle what the inspection finds.

I teach agents to build a relationship with one experienced pre-marketing inspector, the way it took me years to find mine, and to run that inspection early. Then you sit with the seller and the report and decide together: fix what returns two to three times its cost, and hold the rest as a negotiating tool.

Done right, this hands the buyer a Carfax for the home, the report plus the receipts from licensed contractors. Buyers relax, write clean offers at top dollar, and roughly half the time skip their own inspection entirely, which erases the contingency period where a deal can fall apart.

• Inspect before market, not after offerFind the problems while you still have time and leverage, not after a price is agreed.
• Fix what pays, hold what negotiatesCommit to repairs that return two to three times their cost. Keep the rest as a negotiating tool.
• Hand buyers a Carfax for the homeThe report plus contractor receipts produces clean, confident offers at top dollar.
• Erase the contingencyAbout half of buyers skip their own inspection, removing the window where deals collapse.