Should You Get Home Inspections Before You List in the East Bay?

In the East Bay, the answer is usually yes. It used to be that buyers ordered the inspections after an offer was accepted. Here, it is now customary for sellers to order and pay for them first, before the home goes on the market. And that works to your advantage.

Tanja Odzak is a Top East Bay Realtor with eXp Realty, helping buyers and sellers in Oakland, Berkeley, Walnut Creek, Lafayette and across the East Bay. I recommend pre-listing inspections on every home, whatever its age, and this guide explains why.

It comes down to when you hold the most negotiating power. Say you wait, and the buyer's inspection happens after you are already in contract. Now your hands are tied to one buyer. If the report comes back with a large repair list, that buyer can ask you to fix it, give a credit, or reduce the price. Sellers often lose more that way than the inspections would have cost.

When you inspect first, you learn what is going on while you still have options. You decide what to fix, what to leave, and what to disclose. Every buyer sees the same reports before they offer, so they are competing on price and terms, not looking for surprises.

The usual set is a general home inspection, a termite and wood-damage inspection, and a roof inspection, plus anything else your home calls for. Sometimes that includes the sewer lateral or the chimney.

On an older home, I look closely at the same areas a buyer's inspector will: the foundation, the roof, the plumbing, and the electrical. Older East Bay homes often have character and surprises in equal measure, and it is better to meet the surprises on your own schedule. If you want to understand what a report is telling you, I wrote how to read an inspection report without panicking.

No. You do not have to fix everything. Health and safety items and termite work are the ones buyers care about most, and I will help you decide what is worth doing before the home is listed.

For each finding, you have three choices: fix it, leave it, or disclose it and price for it. What you know about the home has to be disclosed either way, which is why I treat the reports and the disclosures as one project. I cover that in what California sellers have to disclose.

When a home was inspected first and marketed properly, buyers are often more comfortable writing offers with fewer contingencies, which can mean a stronger offer for you. The qualifier matters. An offer with few or no contingencies is a reasonable thing to expect only when the pre-inspections were done and the home was marketed properly. Without that groundwork, buyers usually want their own inspection period, and that returns you to the situation where your hands are tied to one buyer.

Some East Bay cities have their own requirements, and they belong on the same list as the inspections.

• Berkeley. A single-family home or duplex needs a Home Energy Score before listing. See what Berkeley sellers need to know about BESO. Berkeley also has its own sewer lateral certificate.
• Across much of the East Bay. A sewer lateral rule applies at sale. The ordinance typically puts the responsibility on the seller, but who brings the lateral into compliance is negotiable.
• Oakland. Get a sidewalk bid early, so you know whether the sidewalk already complies.
• Piedmont. Piedmont has point-of-sale ordinances. Sellers give the buyer and the city a property records search, a sidewalk inspection, and a Home Energy Score before closing. See selling your home in Piedmont.

Waiting for the buyer's inspection. That is the moment your options are smallest.

Ordering reports and not reading them. The value of a pre-inspection is in the decisions you make from it.

Fixing everything. Spending money on items buyers do not care about does not return what it costs.

Hiding the reports. Every buyer should see the same ones. Sharing them is what builds trust, and it is what makes a quicker offer possible.

A longtime owner of an older home is nervous about what an inspector might find, so they hope to wait and see. We order the inspections first. The reports show a few real items, such as some termite damage and an aging roof, and a long list of small things that do not matter. We fix the termite work, disclose and price for the roof, and leave the small items alone. Buyers walk in with the same information as the seller, and the negotiation stays about price and terms.

Start with a short call. I will tell you which inspections make sense for your home, in what order, and what to do with what they find. You can also read how this fits the full plan on how I sell a home. This is general information, not legal, tax, or lending advice.