Who should be at a home inspection?

Is it who should be at a home inspection or who shouldn’t be at a home inspection?

Hey, it’s Damien Baden, your local real estate agent in Northeast, Ohio. And today, I wanted to talk to home sellers.

Home Sellers Are Not The Ones Who Should Be At A Home Inspections

And if you’re a home seller, this is specifically for you about home inspections. A home inspection is one of the most critical parts after a buyer buys the home that you want to go smoothly, and you don’t want it to be awkward. Buyers, the buyer’s agent, and the home inspector are the ones who should be at a home inspection.

A Home Inspection Needs To Be A Positive Buyer Experience

I just want to give you a little story about something that happened and why I’m talking about who should be at a home inspection. I’m actually on my way to a home inspection right now, and late last night, I get a mention from the listing agent that their seller was going to be at the home inspection, that they were only going to sit out on the porch during the home inspection. The listing agent stated, the sellers are a wealth of knowledge about the home, and they’d be happy to answer any questions we may have.

The thing that you need to understand, as a seller, is right now, we don’t have any questions for you.

The biggest thing that they want to make sure, as a buyer, is that the home is what they thought, that there are no surprises that they need to know about. And you want them to have a positive experience during the home inspection, the quickest way, not to have a positive experience and to feel uncomfortable is to have the seller sitting there because…

they’re not buying the seller. They’re buying the home.

And the fact is, quite frankly, they might not like the seller if they get to meet them and that could turn them off the house, having the seller there could also make them feel, as I said before, awkward or uncomfortable because we’re kind of invading a seller’s privacy. When we’re inspecting the home, the seller might be uneasy about us being there in their home. The seller might begin asking too many questions to the buyer, which quite frankly, this is why there’s a listing agent and a buyer’s agent and fault to remove the opportunity for the seller and the buyer to have conversations and create unnecessary issues. Because once again,

they’re not making friends with a seller, it’s a purchase.

I can’t tell you how many other times you’re not making friends with people you’re purchasing from. So, it’s crucial not to have you, the seller, at the home inspection. One of the big things to keep in mind, too, is I could tell countless stories of how sellers made comments offended or upset the buyer.

And here’s the scary part.

If the buyer doesn’t want the home, they can cancel basically on the home inspection, regardless of really what it says. So, it’s essential to keep in mind that the buyer has a positive experience, that they’re not dealing with a home seller at the home inspection. A home inspection is only going to last two and a half three hours in most cases.

You, as the home seller, want the home inspection to be a situation where they can walk around the house. If the buyers, bring a parent or a kid did or anything like that. I want them to have fun while they’re there and not feel like they have to watch what they say or tiptoe around on eggshells because the buyers want to make sure that they don’t say something that the seller might hear and get upset about. So just keep in mind when you’re selling your home, do not have yourself present at a home inspection.