A home inspection is a part of any real estate transaction. A certified inspector needs to check your home in order to verify that it is suited for renting. This means that they will check the foundations, wall, plumbing system, HVAC system, and electrical system. If you have any other system operating in your house, like smoke detectors or garbage disposals, the home inspector will check them too. They need to make sure that the house you are renting is fully functioning and safe. Moreover, potential renters of your home will want to know that everything is in order. So, you better believe that they will be quite thorough during their inspection.
How to prepare for a home inspection
Now, how does one prepare for a home inspection? Well, we will assume that you’ve already staged your home, as you already have a potential tenant. Now all you will have to do is to perform an inspection of your own and fix any issues that might pop up.
Check your roof
Most landlords very rarely check their roofs or only check them when the time comes to sell. If this sounds anything like you, then you will need to take a look at your roof. You will first need to clean it from moss, leaves, and debris in order to be able to properly evaluate it. If there is any small damage to your roof, you can look into getting it fixed. Any larger damage will require you to weigh out with your realtor whether fixing it is worth it.
Woodwork
The next thing we advise you to check is the woodwork. Start off with your front door and then proceed to check every door in the house. Make sure that the handles and the lock are working properly, especially on the front door. Next, you need to check the woodworking on your windows. Most of these home improvements are pretty easy to deal with, which is why you shouldn’t shy away from DIY-ing them. If there are any problems with insulation, or if the windows are hard to open or close, you need to take care of it. Finally, you need to check your cupboards and other wooden elements in your home.
Electricity and heating
Once you’ve dealt with the woodwork, you should proceed to check your electricity. If you are not sure how to do so, you can ask an electrician to have a look. But, if every appliance in your home is working properly, and you cannot find any bare wires, you should be in the clear. One thing you can do is to label the switches on your fuse box. That way you will make inspecting your home much easier.
Check your plumbing
There are two steps to checking your plumbing. First, you need to make sure that your drains work properly. If you’ve been renting out your home for a while, there is a good chance that your drains are slow and that the former residents simply didn’t notice it. So, just in case, get some baking soda and vinegar and make sure that your drains are clear. Also, you need to make sure that your toilets are working properly. Fixing a leaking toilet is quite easy, which is why you shouldn’t let one ruing the impression of your home.
Check for leaks
The next step in checking your plumbing is to check your pipes for leaks. If there is any water around the house that is not accounted for, you need to look into it. Some leaks are easy to fix and will literally take you a couple of minutes, while others may require major renovations and may even require you to change your pipes. Whatever the case, you need to know the plumbing condition in your home before the home inspection.
Bugs and vermin
Have you had any problems in the past with bugs or vermin? If the answer is no, excellent. But, if you did have an issue, you will have to check your home. Permanently getting rid of bugs and vermin is terribly hard to do. Even if you had a professional fume your house and lay down traps, you still need to remain vigilant. Our advice is to have a thorough look around your house and check for any signs of trouble.
Tidy up your home
Now that you are done with mayor check-ups you need to make your home presentable. Start off by decluttering your home. If you have any of your items laying around, you can keep your belongings in a safe unit until you figure out what to do with them. Once you’ve put away the unnecessary items, you should proceed to thoroughly clean the home. Finally, you should change the lightbulbs in your home so that there is no risk of them going out during the inspection.
Provide access to areas that need checking
In order to make the inspection easy and efficient, you should provide access to areas that need checking. That means that you should clear the way for the inspector before they show up. If you’ve gone through your home as we suggested, you should already have a pretty good idea of what areas need to be accessed. Prepare a ladder and torchlight in case some areas are harder to check.
The day of the home inspection
If you’ve done all we’ve advised, you should have no worries come inspection day. All you need to do now is make the whole inspection run smoothly. The best way to think of it is as it were an open house, but only for a single person. So, make sure that all the areas are unlocked and that everything is running properly. The fewer disturbances there are, the faster and easier your inspection will be. Make sure that your home is ready at least two hours before the designated time, as most inspectors like to come early.