A homebuyer is advised to have a home inspection in most “Offer To Purchase” documents. A wise seller will prepare the house for home inspections!
10 Things A Seller Should Do Before Having Their Home Inspected
Home sellers should prepare for the likelihood of a home inspection in advance. Moreover, getting your house ready for a home inspection helps to prevent delays and can prevent surprises. Also, a seller doesn’t need a home inspector to break fixtures or cause damage because the seller was ill-prepared.
In South Africa, sellers are required by law to provide full disclosure of the condition of the property. However, buyers usually pay for their home inspection.
Whether you’ve decided to produce a seller’s home inspection report for buyers or expect the buyer’s home inspector to show up for a buyer’s inspection, the best thing is to be well prepared.
1)Clean the house and the swimming pool
Sellers should always try to create a good first impression. Notably, clean homes and pools are an indication of how you maintain the house and property.
Don’t underestimate the importance of making a good impression. Don’t make the mistake of thinking inspectors see past stuff.
2)The Inspector will be on time
You can expect the home inspector to be on time. Therefore, if an inspector makes an appointment with you at 9:30 a.m., have the house ready for inspection at 9 a.m.
I posted on my blog, in November last year, about damp walls that arise as a result of not having gutters on your home to control the flow of rainwater off your roof.
On Saturday, I inspected a four-year-old property that had a one tile overhang on the roof. There were no gutters, but the house had paving surrounding it.
However, the external walls of the house were in a desperate state because of the three most destructive mistakes architects, developers, builders, and homeowners make!
As a result, I’m going to repeat some of the issues mentioned in my blog!
Damp walls caused by the lack of gutters
Gutters collect rainwater runoff from the roof through downpipes. These convey rainwater onto concrete rainwater channels away from the house in a controlled manner. In addition, they also protect the timber roof structure at the eaves of the house. Furthermore, gutters protect the house’s exterior walls, windows, and doors. They also protect the foundation from damp and potential damage.
The splashing against the walls was the most serious cause of the penetrating damp on the house walls. Moreover, the crazing cracking (spiderweb-like fine cracking) in the plasterwork was the main indicator of the penetrating damp caused by this splashing up of rainwater. Cracking was not observed higher up on the walls.
Even if your house has a reduced overhang at the eaves, gutters will still provide the required protection against heavy rain.
Insufficient roof overhang at the eaves
Roofs with no gutters and a two-tile overhang (600mm for a metal roof) or less will allow water to fall off the roof close to the walls, windows, doors, and the foundation.
Critical Home Selling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
By Kay Pascale
Selling your home is one of the most important life-changing decisions you will make. Moreover, it’s both personal and financial. The stress of the home-selling process can leave you open to some critical and costly mistakes. This includes putting your house price too high! Here are a few common mistakes and how to avoid them.
Choosing the Wrong Real Estate Agents
The second most ill-advised choice, beyond trying to sell your own house, is the wrong choice of estate agents. As a result, properly vetted estate agents, with proven home-selling experience, can help you with many of the costly legal requirements of property transfer. This helps avoid most of the pitfalls of a poorly marketed home. Therefore, consult several local estate agents and ask how they would market your home. Also, ask for a comparative marketing analysis that would give you the values of houses in your area.
Poor Staging
Part of successful home selling is the attractive staging of the property. In addition, decluttering your home will allow potential buyers to visualize themselves in your home. Putting your extra clutter from the garage, attic, and even some of the main rooms of your home in storage will make your home feel more spacious to the buyer.
Small Upgrades are Necessary for Home Selling
In addition, small upgrades like fresh paint and house repairs are home-selling requirements to secure the best price for your home. The basics of home maintenance give the buyer confidence in your home as their choice. Also, keeping your house picture-perfect and ready at short notice can greatly improve the likelihood of a successful and quick sale. A well-staged house ready to view will get the most potential buyers for your home.
Not having a home inspection
Many sellers assume inspections are only for buyers. However, failing to get a pre‑listing home inspection can seriously undermine a sale. Without it, hidden defects like damp, roof leaks, or electrical faults often surface later during the buyer’s inspection. This leads to renegotiations, delays, or even a collapsed deal. A proactive inspection helps sellers identify and fix problems upfront. It enables accurate property pricing and presents a transparent, well‑prepared home. Such preparation builds buyer confidence and reduces the risk of disputes after transfer.
Pricing Your House Too High is a Home-Selling Mistake
Pricing your home too high is one of the costliest and most time-consuming home-selling mistakes. Too high a price can turn off buyers and delay the sale of your home. As a result, each subsequent lowering of your house price will put you in a more vulnerable position in negotiating an optimum sale price.
Not Giving a 90-Day Notice
One of the legal pitfalls that good estate agents can help you avoid is not giving a 90-day notice of cancellation to the bank. This is a costly mistake since it results in a penalty of 1% on the remaining balance on your bond for the full 90 days.
Cancellation Notice of Your Bond – A Home Selling Mistake Often Made
Your bank will freeze your funds once you give a cancellation notice on the bond. Therefore, if you need those funds for a down payment, it could jeopardise the purchase of your new home. The cancelled bond will usually pay out in 10 weeks. Moreover, withdrawing the necessary funds for your purchase before giving a cancellation notice would avoid a costly delay.
In the End
The researched choice of an experienced estate agent will help you avoid critical and costly home-selling mistakes. Therefore, take the time to choose the right agent to give you confidence in their guidance during the sale process. When you’re ready to find your dream home, speak to an experienced agent. Experienced agents will help you sell your current house and move on to your next adventure in life.
Note: Kay Pascale is a real estate writer and will contribute more interesting and informative articles to my blog.
If you’re trying to increase the resale value of your home, there are probably more than a few side projects you want to finish before putting the house on the market for all to see. While some of these, like any kind of roof maintenance, are true renovations that likely require the help and vision of an expert, there remain some weekend projects that you can complete in a single weekend. Here are a few tips to help increase the resale value of your house.
Fix Outdoor Landscaping to Improve Curb Appeal
The first thing potential buyers will see when they walk up to your home is the landscaping. Do trees and bushes look overgrown? Is the lawn too long, or are there unsightly stumps and plants littering the yard? A little prevention in the form of weeding, gardening, watering, and trimming will have the front of your house looking immaculate and inviting to potential buyers. According to Home-Dzine, your lawn is probably one of the first things someone will notice about your house. Therefore, keep your grass trimmed, remove dead branches, and plant some flowers for a pop of colour.
Clean
Your Gutters
Power washing the walls and the driveway is a great way to make your home look well cared for. This allows your house to stand out in a positive way from the rest of the houses on your street. Moreover, Gutters are often overlooked when cleaning up the outside of a home because you can’t see them from ground level. But rest assured it will make a big difference.
Make
Any Necessary Repairs
Repairs can easily be completed in the span of a weekend. In addition, to ensure that there are no visible red flags, have a walkthrough or seller’s inspection. This will pinpoint any areas that need to be worked on prior to selling the home. Things that may be simply annoying to you might be deal-breakers for a buyer. In particular, leaky taps, mould damage, or a faulty light switch could be the difference between that SOLD sign and spending weeks or even months languishing on the market.
An electrified fence is your first line of defence in securing your home!
Few homeowners realise that there are very strict regulations governing theinstallation and maintenance of an electrified fence. Many don’t have an Electric Fence Certificate of Compliance.
New electric fence regulations
Electrified fence regulations were amended in 2011. However, at the time the regulations did not receive much attention.
The regulations that apply to electrified fences are the Electrical Machinery Regulations. They fall under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
But is it really an issue? The answer is yes! The authorities are now enforcing the regulations and many homeowners are up in arms!
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