In the State of Georgia, a seller must disclose any known defects to prospective buyers via a Seller's Property Disclosure made part of the sales agreement. For this reason, some real estate agents argue against getting a house inspected before putting it on the market. These agents point out that you can't tell buyers about problems if you don't know the problems exist. They also believe that handing buyers a long list of repair problems as they enter your house will turn many of them off. They recommend getting buyers emotionally committed to the property first before their own inspectors drop the bomb. That line of reasoning is based on an ostrich-like logic: What you don't know can't get you into trouble - for a while, anyway. Some agents may also use a second argument to convince sellers to refrain from getting pre-inspections on their property. Buyers generally won't believe anything in reports paid for by sellers. According to these agents, buyers suspect you will hire a go-easy inspector to falsely report that your house is as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar. So, why spend several hundred dollars on an inspection report that buyers won't believe? Or worse yet, the buyer will still inspect and come up with more. You can find a nugget of truth in both these arguments. On the other hand, the best defense is a good offense. Beat buyers to the punch. Get your inspections before they get theirs. Discover everything wrong with your house before putting it on the market. Defusing a crisis begins by discovering that a problem exists. Consider these four reasons for having your property thoroughly inspected before marketing.
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