Pittsburgh Real Estate Podcast with Gina Giampietro - Save Money with a Pre-Inspection on Your Pittsburgh Home

Save Money with a Pre-Inspection on Your Pittsburgh Home

06/15/16 • -1 min

Pittsburgh Real Estate Podcast with Gina Giampietro

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If you’re listing your home, it might be a good idea to get a pre-inspection. Most buyers have their own inspection done, so why is this important? Well, most buyers won’t take your home inspection, and they will do another inspection. However, they will take your pest inspection, and 9 times out of 10, they will take your radon inspection.

Those aren’t the ones I want you to concentrate on, though. I want you to concentrate on the home inspections. In real estate, you list a home, get an offer, you negotiate, the buyer does their inspection, and you negotiate again. Wouldn’t it be better just to negotiate once?

When you have a pre-inspection on your home, you know exactly what’s wrong with it and exactly what needs to be fixed. You can either price your house according to the repairs and disclose them, or fix the repairs that will come up in the buyer’s home inspection. If you take that latter route, you can negotiate to your number, because you know all the repairs have been fixed and there’s nothing wrong with your home.

When you negotiate twice, you leave money on the table

Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report

Want to buy a home? Search all homes for sale

When you negotiate twice, you leave money on the table

Previous Episode

Don’t Get Stuck With Contingencies in the Pittsburgh Market

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Sale and settlement contingencies can be a painful situation for someone who needs to buy a home and sell at the same time in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, we see it on a daily basis.

The best thing for you to do when you have a sale and settlement contingency is first go to the lender and see if you can actually obtain two mortgages. That way, you can proceed with your new home before your old home sells. That way you’ll have a lot of options.

The painful second part is that you need to sell to buy. You want to go see houses and make an offer, but nobody will accept your offer because your home hasn't sold yet . The best thing I can tell you is that you’ve got to make your house perfect. You’ve got to get that offer first, and once that offer is obtained, it’s way easier to find your perfect home.

Next Episode

How Seller Assist Helps Pay Your Closing Cost

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Closing costs are going to be part of your transaction when you purchase a home, whether you’re paying cash or getting a loan. When paying cash, the closing costs will be lower. When getting a loan, they’re much higher - anywhere from 5% to 8%, depending on your tax escrows and what your lender is requiring to hold. When you’re making an offer, your overall cost can be quite high after you include your down payment and closing fee.

This is where seller assist comes in. Seller assist can be anywhere from 3% to 6%, based on the loan you’re receiving. Out of courtesy for the seller, if you’re going to ask them to pay your closing costs, you have to look at what their real net sale amount is. For example, on a $100,000 loan and purchase price, if you ask the seller to pay 6% of those closing costs, you’re really only giving the seller $94,000. The seller is more or less gifting you $6,000. Therefore, if you come into that $100,000 purchase and want to offer them $90,000, and have them pay another 6,000