In the State of Georgia, unlike many other states, home inspectors are not licensed.  Real estate appraisers, on the other hand, are either registered, licensed and/or certified. Each real estate appraiser must complete a 2,000 hour apprenticeship program under the direct supervision of a certified appraiser. The individual who practices home inspection in the State of Georgia has hopefully taken a home inspection course, which is approximately 40-hours in length.  A portion of the 40-hour in-class home inspection course may allow the instructor and his/her students to actually do a complete home inspection in the field. The on-site home inspection provides for a personal interactive environment between the students and the instructor during the home inspection process and helps to motivate each student to query the instructor and ask questions that probably could not have been answered while in-class. I think we would all agree, that a student who has an opportunity to actually visit the subject property and inspect both the home and the site will have a great advantage and will do a more thorough job when he or she gets into the home inspection business. There is no substitute for on-the-site training!  On-line or correspondence courses are of little or no help to those who want to be real estate ppraisers and/or home inspectors.

Today, the home seller is under a great deal of pressure due to the fact that there are many new and used homes for sale in the residential marketplace.  As we say in the real estate business, we now have a “Buyers” market. The home buyer is able to negotiate with a wide variety of private home sellers and many local and national banks that are now holding homes in their inventory that they have taken back in foreclosure referred to as REOs or real estate owned. Once the private home seller has negotiated what they believe to be a fair market price, they have to now be concerned about the home inspector and what they find to be wrong with the seller’s home.  The home seller may be wise to first order and pay for a home inspection before placing their home on the open housing market.  Once the home seller has the hard copy of the Home Inspection in their hands, they are better able to determine what repairs, remodeling and/or renovation has been mandated by the home inspector to make the seller’s home more saleable. Today, most home buyers in the market place do not want to purchase a home and have to spend time, effort and money to bring their newly acquired home up to their living standards. I have yet to hear a home buyer say, “I just can’t wait to make all of the repairs noted by the home inspector before we move in”.

If you are a home seller who is attempting to sell their home in this “Buyers” market, you should prepare for the home inspector and consider the following:

1.  Make sure that your house is “Staged” properly and shows well to the
prospective buyer
2.  Make sure that the utilities are on and all mechanical items are
functioning
3.  Make sure that the attic, furnace, condensing units, water heater,
electrical boxes are all accessible
4.  Make sure that all keys are available
5.  Make sure that nothing is stored in bathtubs an showers
6.  List all repairs, remodeling and renovations completed during your
ownership
7.  Deactivate the security system
8.  Follow the home inspector through the entire inspection and ask as many
questions as possible-Remember you are paying for this inspection
9.  Secure a copy of the home inspector’s resume’ indicating his experience
and professional background
10.Is the home inspector certified and a member of a national trade
association
11.Does the home inspector have errors and omissions insurance policy
12.Does the home inspector have a general liability insuance policy

Lastly, once the home inspector completes the home inspection and delivers the hard copy to the home seller, it is now time for the home seller to determine if they want to make all of the repairs, remodeling and/or renovation noted in the inspection report by the home inspector in order to sell the subject property at a fair market value.  In addition, the new home buyer will be able to utilize the home inspection report ordered and paid for by the home seller and therefore save the $300-$350 required for a new home inspection report.  Remember, the home inspector can either make or break a home sale for the home seller.

Tags: Appraisal, appraiser, education, Home Inspection, Real Estate

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 11:27 am and is filed under CE, General, Home Inspection, Insurance, Post-License, Pre-License. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.