Home Inspections from the Selling Side

During your negotiation stage, buyers will inform sellers of the inspections they would like to conduct and how long they'd like to have to do so. This period of time is essentially a buyer beware option - buyers can hire professionals to take a closer look at the property and if there is anything they find unsatisfactory, they are free to end the contract. Consequently, the fewer inspections a buyer plans to conduct (and in the shortest amount of time), the better. In the sale of our home, the buyers took the right to do a general building, septic, and water inspection.

After the inspections are conducted, the buyers can decide to continue with the purchase, renegotiate and ask for some items to be fixed, or to terminate the agreement. In our instance, the buyers asked for a few things and we agreed to the items we felt necessary (mainly with the water system).

From a seller's prospective, preparing for inspections is very important. This is most likely only the second time a buyer has been back to your property. You want the house to be in the same condition as the first time they fell in love. It's also important to take a look at your property from an inspector's view. Is anything leaking? Are there missing or broken screens? Are there opportunities for quick repair to the roof, siding or outbuildings? Chipped paint? Taking care of these minor things prior to an inspection can alleviate buyers' perception of whether their inspection went poorly or not. And remember, it's not part of the contract that you must fix any items that come up during inspections. It is merely a time for a buyer to learn as much as possible about the property - if their requests are too much, you too can refuse and allow the buyer to not continue with the purchase.

After inspections, congratulations are in order, as you can now sit back and relax until the appraisal - this time period is work time for the buyers and buyers lender to start processing any loan applications.

Check back soon for the appraisal process! 

Maine Homes and Loans, catchy and self-explanatory, right? We think so - but as an introduction - here's who makes up the home and who represents the loans:


MAINE- that's our great state - where we service clients all over!

HOMES- as an Associate Broker at Maine's largest independent real estate agency in South Portland, The Maine Real Estate Network, Megan (the writer of this blog post, who sometimes enjoys 3rd person) helps clients with their home buying and selling needs. She specializes in first-time buyers and sellers because she is very detailed oriented and doesn't mind walking them through the process step by step.

LOANS - as a Mortgage Lender at Cumberland County Mortgage, Corey has offices in Auburn, Brunswick, and South Portland. He is happy to help clients with advice on getting credit prepared for a home purchase, give advice on the best loan type for each situation, and especially loves helping homeowners SAVE lots of money by refinancing. 

Together Corey and Megan have formed a team to give Megan's buyers and current homeowners the best possible service and smooth transaction. Financing a home purchase can be complicated, and as much as we try to avoid it, stressful - but with direct access to both sides, our clients have found it's a lot easier and most importantly, successful! We can't wait to show you, email us at megan@mainehomesandloans.com or call 207.221.5450. You can also follow us on Facebook and stop back by our blog here. We look forward to helping you with life's best investment - homeownership!