The Marvin H. Schaefer Inspection Service, Inc. has some important and helpful tips to help you prepare your home for sale and its eventual inspection. [Potential buyers will hire a professional home inspector to evaluate the condition of your home.]  We have provided a list of tips to make your home more attractive and marketable.  Many of these tips are small repairs that are inexpensive and easy to do. The more you do now, the less problems will arise later during the buyer’s inspection of your home. A few of these tips may require professional service; however, they are still within the scope of general home maintenance. The repairs of a cosmetic nature typically attract a buyer in a shorter period of time.

We wish you good fortune in the sale of your present home and in finding your new home wherever that may be. If there is anything else we can do for you to help prepare your home for sale, please do not hesitate to call us.

23 Home Maintenance Tips To Prepare Your Home For Sale And Inspection

1. Paint or stain siding and trim as needed where faded or peeling.
2. Replace any decayed siding or trim.
3. Clean gutters and be sure downspout bottoms are extended adequately away from the house to prevent water seepage into the basement.
4. Repoint and patch any loose brickwork on the chimney or exterior walls.
5. Re-putty windows as needed.
6. Paint rusted wrought iron rails and secure loose ones as needed.
7. Make sure your deck has joist hangers, it is bolted to the house and is properly flashed.
8. Make sure all exterior crawl space areas under the house, porches and stairs are ventilated.
9. Repair cracks in retaining walls.
10. Trim shrubs 6 inches from the house, remove attached vines. Remove leaves and debris from planting areas.
11. For proper rain run-off, be sure the ground slopes away from the house at a rate of one inch per foot for a distance of five to six feet.
12. Patch any foundation cracks that allow water penetration with hydraulic cement.
13. Be sure the dryer is vented to the exterior of the house.
14. Have your heating, air-conditioning and hot water heater serviced if they have not been in the last six months.

15. Check all interior plumbing fixtures for leaks and make sure they are in proper working order.
16. Have all interior well equipment serviced if it has not been in the last year.
17. Pump your septic tank if it has not been pumped in the last year.
18. Make sure all doors are adjusted so that they close correctly.
19. Make sure the interior walls and ceilings are cosmetically attractive. If there are any water stains on the ceilings the cause should be repaired and the stain painted over with stain kill (kilz) type paint.
20. Properly repair loose bathroom tile and regrout as needed.
21. Clean chimney flues if needed.
22. Be sure all interior stair rails are secure.
23. Install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

We hope that these tips are helpful to you in the selling process of your home. To make it even easier we will be glad to provide a free phone consultation as you prepare your home for a home inspection.

For those home sellers who are interested in the highest level of sale and inspection preparation, The Marvin H. Schaefer Inspection Service, Inc. can provide a full pre-sale home inspection. Don’t be caught off guard by hidden problems in your home that may cause your buyer to back out. We can help you with problems like hidden wood destroying insect infestation, such as termites and carpenter ants. Buyers viewing a home that had a past and treated infestation are more at ease than those buyers who find an active infestation during their own inspection. Buyers usually want problem items replaced, which can be three to five times as costly as repairing the item. An inspection prior to sale can point these problems out and save you substantial money.

If you are selling your home and plan to buy again in Connecticut, than you will need a qualified home inspection company to evaluate your new home. We hope you will consider The Marvin H. Schaefer Inspection Service, Inc. for this important part of the home purchasing process.

The Marvin H. Schaefer Inspection Service, Inc. is an Inspection company that has been in business for over twenty years and has inspected over 50,000 Connecticut homes. Our inspectors will walk you through the inspection, evaluating all the major structural and mechanical components of both the exterior and interior of the home. Our complete "Home Evaluation & Reference Book" will be in your hand at the end of the inspection, and we will be available for free phone consultation for as long as you own your home.

The information contained on this page is not exhaustive and is meant to be only an overview.  For complete documentation on this subject please contact local or State heath officials.