6 Tips to Prepare Your Home For an Open Inspection

Hi everyone. Today I found a great article in argfinance.com.au that I know many of you will enjoy reading or possibly relate to. The original article can be found here - https://www.argfinance.com.au/2016/08/08/6-tips-to-prepare-your-home-for-an-open-inspection/ - if you’d like to read the article there, or I’ve pasted parts of it here to share it. It’s well worth a read.

This relates to you, doesn’t it? An old saying which proves true especially when it comes to putting your home on the market for an open inspection. As a seller, you might run numerous ads about your home and even use staging ideas so that it appeals to buyers.

However, the buyer today is smart. When buying a house, it is evident, the buyer would not just close the deal by seeing the exterior beauty or internal bling of the house. Buyers have now started looking past all the pretty presentations and are instead concentrating on the actual size, shape, and placement in the floorplan, so that they can plan on how to use it once they settle down.

Home sellers will find interested home buyers opening up all their closets, looking through all their belongings, cross checking every plumbing related appliance or electronics they can find. So, be prepared for and patient with strangers arriving at your front door and diving into every nook and corner of your personal space.

Hence, to avoid any problems with the home buyers, here are 7 tips that will completely prepare you for the upcoming open home inspection that you have planned for your home.

1. Give your home a thorough cleaning

This sounds so obvious doesn’t it?

But, the fact is that many home sellers do not take the effort to keep their property, including the garden and outside areas, neat and tidy before the inspection starts till the time when buyers arrive.

Whether a home seller preparing the home for a potential home buyer at an open inspection or for a professional one, it is always essential to make a good first impression and so the aim should be to display the highest level of cleanliness. A clean home reflects, to buyers and inspectors, that you have cared enough of your property.

2. Repair obvious problems

Before you go ahead and open your home for inspections to buyers, it is essential that basic repair jobs have been done. This does not mean that you need to give your home a complete makeover. All you have to do is ensure that your home is free from any obvious and unattractive looking problems.

If necessary, it is best to engage a professional to do the repairs, especially if it is beyond your ability. This does not mean that you are trying to pretend like that are no problems. It only means that you do not want visitors to deal with these problems on their very first excursion through your home.

Here are some repairs you can take out:

• Fill up any minor wall cracks and if required then repaint the walls.
• If you notice any broken tiles, replace them and re-grout if necessary.
• Check whether the plumbing works properly to ensure that there are no easily fixable problems like water hammer or dripping taps.
• Resurface or paint chipped or stained surfaces.
• Replace any cracked window-panes or mirrors.

3. Beautify your garden

When we say, make your garden look beautiful, you do not have to go all the way out and carry out a large landscaping job on your garden. It only means that the garden has to be free of weeds, the lawn is kept trim, and the shrubs and trees are pruned into shape. Additionally, keep garden tools hidden, if you have children keep their toys properly, and in case of pets ensure they leave no mess behind. Add some pots of colourful flowers or greenery near the entrance and in the backyard. Everything should look should look natural, clean, and tidy.

4. Arrange furniture and furnishings artfully

When you come up to inspection day, keep in mind to arrange the furniture in each room tidily so that they look stylish and are easy to move around for prospective buyers. It is best to get a home stylist to give you a critical review of your home so that it is fit for inspection day. Each room should contain just enough furniture and decor to look lived in and livable. Also ensure that on inspection-day buyers can move around the house easily without having to push their way around awkwardly-placed furniture.

5. Ensure that utilities are turned on for inspections.

If your property has been vacant for some time then get your appliances like dishwashers, washing machines, water heating, water pressure, and gas outlets, and ovens tested to see if they are still in working condition. This is the job of a professional house inspector who will ensure that all these appliances are in proper working order. The inspector will also need to look at other technical issues like electrical grounding, which cannot be done if the electricity is turned off. If these utilities are turned off for the inspection, the assessor will be unable to meet their target and and another day would need to be rescheduled. Due to this, there could be a delay in settlement or even a buyer backing out of the deal.

6. Lock up valuables

Like we had mentioned earlier, during an open property inspection, home buyers will be all over the place, looking at every nook and corner. We are not saying that all of them would be nosy. However, there would be some sticky-fingered guests, whom we should remember not to tempt by leaving out our jewelry, electronic equipment, or other valuable items in the open.

You cannot keep an eye on every single person in every single room. Also, if something goes missing by chance, then chasing up every single visitor after a suspected theft is not what you want to be doing. So, hide your valuables out of sight in drawers or the back of a cupboard, which is enough to deter most opportunistic thieves.

If you still do not feel safe then keep your valuables at a trusted friend’s place or a safety deposit box. Do not leave phone numbers or identity cards lying around. Be as discreet as possible.

Over to you

The right atmosphere is the most important factors when preparing your property for open home inspections. This can involve making the maximum efforts to give buyers the feeling of being in the property and seeing themselves living there.

Preparing your house for sale and then presenting it in its best possible form really pays dividends in the end financial result. The little, and sometimes large, touches applied to a home’s presentation for sale can make the difference of obtaining the best possible result and can help in at least selling for an average price.

This author seems to write some great stuff and well worth following.

If there is any other info you’d like me to search out and share in the world of Legal Services then please let me know. Or, if you have any other pressing needs in my area, feel free to reach out on (0295) 686 266 or visit www.cmlaw.com.au.

Thanks,

Alex