Blog
Follow along: Newsletter | Facebook | Instagram
Preparing for a home inspection
Whether you’re buying or selling, a home inspection is almost always part of the process. As a buyer, you want to “have look under the hood” before you go through with the purchase. It’s usually written into your offer as a contingency, so if you’re not happy with the result you can reopen negotiations to address any discoveries, or even cancel the sale.
As a seller, you want to address any potential issues before the inspection takes place. Since it’s in the best interest of both buyers and sellers to ace the home inspection, here are 5 tips to help your home shine on inspection day.
Utility Room: Tidy up around the “mechanicals” (aka furnace, water heater, etc.) These are biggies on an inspection and cleaning helps eliminate any perceptions of neglect. Wipe down the units, sweep up, and change the furnace filter.
Drains, Sinks, and Plumbing: By far the most common callouts on an inspection are slow drains, missing caulk, or leaky fixtures. Flush those drains, fire up the caulk gun, and fix anything that drips.
Doors, Windows, and Screens: If they’re broken, missing, or a bit squeaky, the inspector’s eye will catch it. Clear out window tracks or give hinges a little oil. This includes the garage door!
Tighten Up: Doors, door handles, closets, and toilet bolts should all be snugly secured.
Cleanliness Is Key: It shouldn’t matter as much as it does, but well… it does. Cleaning goes a long way. Tidy up, and pay extra attention to inside appliances (fridge, dishwasher, laundry) and under sinks.
Our Take:
If you’re purchasing a home, be sure to ask your inspector questions and study the report – this often turns into a punchlist of “to-do’s” upon moving in. Working with an experienced agent can help you decide which items need to be resolved before move-in, or how to negotiate a better purchase price based on findings. When selling, ask your agent about the benefits of doing a home inspection prior to listing. Whether it’s your first purchase or sale, or your fifteenth, nobody likes surprises when dealing with one of life’s biggest investments.
Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.
Read MoreCome take a peek at a pair of SunCrest’s finest listings Saturday Sept 14th. We’ll be available to answer questions you may have, provide SunCrest real estate information, or just chat about how we live in the greatest community in Utah.
Can’t make it? Schedule a showing here or Read More
Follow along: Newsletter | Facebook | Instagram
What Happens When a Home Inspection Doesn’t Go According To Plan?
Someone sells a home. Someone offers to buy it. In between the time the offer is made and the house is officially sold, the person buying the house asks for a period of “due diligence.” That’s just a fancy way of saying that the buyer needs to do some homework. The most common part of this due diligence is a thorough home inspection, where the buyer hires an independent, qualified home inspector to examine the property from roof to foundation looking for any potential issues that would be important to know before a sale can go through. If the home inspection report comes back with problems, typically a buyer and seller work together to find ways to keep the sale alive. Here are the three most common ways the two parties can work together.
REPAIRS TO BE MADE BY SELLER
In this scenario, the buyer and seller look at the home inspection report and the seller agrees to fix things that needs to be addressed. It may create out-of-pocket expenses for the seller, but it immediately address the items in question, usually on a mutually agreed upon timeline, and may not affect the original terms of the deal.
PURCHASE PRICE REDUCTION
In this scenario, the buyer and seller mutually agree to reduce the sale price of the home in lieu of doing repairs or credit. This is pretty straightforward for all parties.
CLOSING COST CREDIT
In this scenario, the seller may agree to kick in and cover some of the buyer’s costs. Think of it this way: it costs a lot for a buyer to get a loan and close on a house, so the seller agrees to cover some of those costs, and those are paid at the time of closing. This can be a good alternative for sellers who don’t want to pay money out of pocket for repairs, and it also helps the buyer lower the expenses involved in buying their home.
Our Take:
There is no “one size fits all” remedy for home inspections with surprises. Some buyers or sellers may not be big into DIY, while others would much rather tackle the projects themselves. Money, time, skills, and negotiation style all play a role. Should anything come up that needs a specific service professional or educated opinion, working with an agent who can provide references or manage this process for you will allow you to focus on the more fun parts of buying a house.
Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.
Read MoreWe are so excited to highlight one of the many amazing trails in our SunCrest community trail highlight. Come explore the Oak Vista Trail!
Read MoreThanks to everyone who came out to the pool opening party. We love spending summers at the SunCrest pool!
Read MoreFollow along: Newsletter | Facebook | Instagram
What Do You Do When Your Home Gets Multiple Offers?
Imagine you’ve just spent time getting you house ready to sell, it’s all gussied up, and you and your REALTOR plant the for sale sign in the yard. The marketing plan is in full swing and your work starts to pay off—you get an offer! Wait, then another… and another! As we continue to experience a shorter supply of available homes for sale, some homes are receiving multiple offers leaving the sellers wondering what to do next.
Here are the most common options a seller has when presented with multiple offers.
Accept or Counter One Offer
Sounds simple enough, right? The Seller looks at each of the offers and determines that they want to accept or counter only one of the offers. Then they may just reject all the other offers. It simplifies things, but there are risks. They may not reach an agreement, or even if they do, sometimes the deal falls apart later on and it’s back to the drawing board with buyers, and some of the other offers may now how moved on.
Counter All
Rather than accept or counter only one of the multiple offers, the Seller may elect to provide specific counteroffers to all of the interested parties and give them all the same time frame to accept or reject the counteroffer. This can get complicated, but sometimes it pays off with a higher purchase price. However, there are also risks. Some buyers who get a counteroffer might just move on, and sellers can lose interested buyers who don’t want to get into a perceived “bidding war” scenario.
Highest and Best
Rather than negotiating with only one of the multiple offers, or putting together multiple specific counteroffers, the Seller can just tell all of the people making offers to come back with their “highest and best offer” and give them a deadline. Much like countering all offers you can end up getting more for your home, but you can also chase away buyers who don’t want to feel like they’re in an auction.
Reject or Let Lapse
While this is rarely the case, a seller may choose to reject all of the offers or choose not respond by the offer response time. Perhaps they didn’t like any of the offers, seem too far off to make a counteroffer, or the seller has had a change of heart. Sellers risk alienating those who made the offer, and passing up a chance to at least negotiate with an interested party.
Our Take:
First of all, we should insert our legal disclaimer here—The above situations are offered as a matter of opinion and not counsel, should you find yourself in a multiple offer scenario. It might seem like having multiple offers is a good thing—and it can be, when handled correctly—we think no matter what, you should be having conversations about what to do about them in the pre-listing/pre-buying consultation stage. Hiring an experienced agent or team to help explore the best price, terms, and timeline can help avoid failed offers or costly pitfalls and help achieve the best outcome your buying or selling situation.
Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.
Read More
Suncrest Real Estate
Suncrest Community
About Suncrest Lifestyle
© 2020 Suncrest Lifestyle / Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy
