Realtor Iowa City

How to Do a Home Inspection With a Realtor

When you’re working with the best realtor Iowa City, North Liberty, or Coralville, Iowa has to offer, it is essential to take the time to inspect your property thoroughly. As a result, a walkthrough or a home inspection should be done when you try to sell any piece of property. The following steps are among the most crucial and most straightforward to perform and will ensure things go smoothly for you.

Walk the Perimeter Together

When starting your home tour with the realtor, walk the perimeter of your property to get an idea of the land and everything that it contains. This process is smart because you’ll later be moving into the house and getting an idea of what the interior is like. Knowing the exterior in this way ensures that you get the best possible understanding of your property, particularly if you pay attention to elements that others may ignore, such as the layout of your lawn and your yard.
For example, pay attention to different areas of the yard that may have weak spots or which roll in unique ways. This process often requires you and the agent to find a professional who can inspect the yard and check its elevation throughout your property. In most cases, you shouldn’t have a hard time getting this process done, mainly if your agent is intelligent and capable. And as your inspector checks your land, make sure to pay particular attention to the sides of the house, garage, and shed.
These inspections will focus heavily on the foundation of the buildings on your property to ensure that they are strong enough to withstand a variety of different pressures and damage types. Just as importantly, you also need to make sure that your land slopes away from these buildings in a way that takes water away from the foundation. If you find that it does not, you and your agent may need to hire a contractor or excavator to help achieve this slope and protect your property.

Start On the First Floor

Once you finish with your exterior inspection of the house, you should move inside with your realtor and check out the first floor. The first floor is often the area where people will spend most of their time – if there is a second floor, it is usually a floor dedicated just to bedrooms or secondary sectors of the house. Therefore, it is a good idea to focus most of your inspection – at first – on this floor and to expand out in ways that make your agent happy and which check everything properly.
This inspection should include checking all of the appliances in the house, plumbing areas, including the pipes, electrical elements, and heating aspects to ensure that they are as secure as possible. Make sure to move through the house in a controlled and reasonable way – always start in one room, check everything from floor to ceiling, and then proceed to another level. You can either work together with your agent in each room to find more issues or separate to cover more area.
Importantly, you should be looking for signs of foundation damage and mold on the first floor as you move. If you see these issues, it is essential to check for them in the basement as well. A proper basement inspection should include checking for this damage, evidence of insect invasion, water, mildew, and anything else that may be problematic in your basement. Take note of these issues and list them with your agent to ensure that they are known before you sell your property.

Move Up to the Second Floor

After you finish checking out the first floor, move up to the second floor and any other levels beyond this point if applicable. The second floor is, as mentioned, is often a comfort floor. As a result, it needs to be as strong as possible and must be free from issues like cracks in the walls, issues with the floor structure, and more. These problems often spread quite quickly throughout the second floor and need to be corrected with professionals to ensure that your house is easier to sell.
For example, pay attention to the carpentry, the flooring, the walls, and any other areas that may be cracked or damaged. Spotting this damage early is critical because you can use the information gathered here to fix problems with your realtor before they become expensive issues. Remember: home damage often has a way of spreading from one spot to another and becoming a problem if you don’t take immediate steps to fix them. Thankfully, most homeowners should be able to handle these repairs.
As you move through the second floor, make sure that you pay particular attention to signs of stress damage on the walls. If you spot cracks through the walls that come up from the first floor, your foundation damage is likely very severe. As a result, you’ll need to sit down with your agent and talk about repair methods and their necessity. While you might not get back the repair costs in some cases, failing to repair foundation damage will drive your home price down to very low levels.

Other Important Inspections

Once you’ve checked all of your house out in this way, there are a few other steps that you should perform. These steps aren’t extensive enough to require a separate section here, but they should be mentioned before you sell a home. They include how you should:

• Check the Attic

  – Though the attic may be used only for home storage, you need to check for rats, insects, leak damage, and any other issues that could affect your home.

• Inspect the Roof

  – Get on the roof with your realtor and take a look at the possible damage. Come up with a repair plan if necessary to keep it from becoming a larger issue.

• Hire an Electrician

  – Bring in a professional to check your home’s wiring. Working through electrical problems on your own is too dangerous to consider and may also cause more issues than it prevents.

• Talk to a Plumber

  – Hire a professional plumber to come to your home and inspect any issues that could cause complications, such as pipe leaks.

Get the Help You Need

So if you need to work with the best realtor Iowa City, North Liberty, or Coralville, Iowa has to offer, please contact us at Jeff Dill Real Estate right away to learn more. Our agents have years of experience working in these areas and will provide you with the best chance of selling your home quickly and efficiently. We will also walk with you through any home inspection to ensure that things go as smoothly as possible and will help you fix any issues that may occur.