I want to sell my home. Do I need to wait until the prospective purchaser carries out a pre-purchase building and pest inspecton to determine whether my home has damage or not?
The answer is an absolute NO.
What normally happens when I decide to sell my property?
Selling your home is an expensive and time consuming exercise. The time involved with choosing an agent you are comfortable and confident with is significant.
More often than not, your chosen agent will require up front payment for electronic and print advertising along with the cost of the sign board for the front of your property.
Once you have committed to those considerable costs they are not refundable regardless of whether your property sells or not.
The marketing phase of selling a property can be very disruptive. Successful agents will want to open your home for viewing to the public, most often on a weekend.
Individual inspections by prospective purchasers will also occur regularly.
Damage uncovered during a pre-purchase building and pest inspection can have serious implications to the future prospects of selling the property and can be emotionally devastating.
In our experience, once significant damage to a structure is discovered, the sale of the property is unlikely to proceed. On the rare occasion that the purchaser is prepared to proceed, they will nearly always request a significant reduction of the sale price.
I couldn’t see the defects that were present in my home. How did the inspector find them?
The qualifications and experience of the inspector will directly influence the outcome of a pre-purchase building and pest inspection.
Matt Johnston, owner and operator of Moreton Bay Building and Pest Inspections is a trade qualified and QBCC licenced carpenter/joiner, builder, completed residential buildings inspector and a licenced timber pest inspector. Matt is also a QLD Health qualified and licenced pest management technician. He has been working in the industry in areas such as Bribie Island, Sandstone Point, Ningi, Beachmere, Toorbul, Donnybrook, Elimbah, Caboolture and Morayfield for thirty years.
Matt has acute knowledge and understanding of how buildings are constructed in these areas, their life expectancy, their expected rate of deterioration and the likelihood of attack from timber pests including termites.
Three decades of formal training and on the job experience combined with the latest tools and equipment including Flir thermal imaging and Tramex moisture detection along with powerful report production facilities result in comprehensive defect identification.
An in depth knowledge of the Australian Standards relevant to building and timber pest inspections is required to ensure defects are represented correctly within the report.
Incorrect defect representation in the reports is a major contributing factor inappropriate defect rectification and also leads to contracts being terminated
It is extremely unlikely that an untrained, unlicensed, inexperienced person without the latest tools and equipment or access to the Australian Standards or report production facilities will identify significant defects occurring in or around a structure and report on them correctly.
What are the likely consequences of significant defects or damage being discovered at my property during a pre-purchase building and pest inspection?
In our experience, the discovery of significant defects or damage in a structure will more often than not result in a contract being terminated.
Money spent on electronic and print advertising, signboards etc along with the agents and your own time is lost.
In many cases the damage will have to be disclosed to future prospective purchasers.
A reduction in the value of the property is a very real possibility.
Being forced to rectify a structure that you have decided to sell can be a difficult situation.
In a best case scenario, a reduction of the purchase price will be requested by the purchaser. Generally the reduction amount will be greater than the actual rectification costs due to the risk to the purchaser involved with buying a property with known defects.
Can I have a building and pest inspection carried out on my own property prior to marketing it?
The answer is a simple YES.
A pre-sale building inspection carried out by Moreton Bay Building and Pest Inspections is carried out to the same Australian Standard as a pre-purchase building and pest inspection using the same methodology, tools, equipment and report writing facilities.
If the pre-sale building and pest inspection is carried out early in the process, any defects identified can be dealt with immediately.
Once a defect is rectified there is no requirement for that defect to be disclosed.
A pre-sale building and pest inspection will also identify and report on any conditions conducive to the future deterioration or damage to the structure whether it be deterioration caused by age and the environment or damage caused by timber pest attack.
A strong termite management system is a necessity in the Moreton Bay region due to the high population of destructive termites and is a big selling point that can be used to market your property and set it apart from others.
Once you have had a pre-sale building and pest inspection carried out on your property and completed any rectifications, should they be required, you and your agent can get on with the task of marketing your property knowing that once a contract is signed the path to a successful sale should be obstacle free.
An increasing number of agents will not market a property unless a pre-sale building and pest inspection is undertaken. Some agents are reducing their commission in line with the cost of the inspections.
How much does a pre-sale building and pest inspection cost?
We price inspections according to the size and type of structure inspected.
Typically, a pre-sale building and pest inspection including thermal imaging of the entire structure, moisture detection of any high risk areas and any area where a thermal anomaly occurs on a four bedroom, two bathroom low-set slab on ground brick veneer home in the Moreton Bay region will cost around $490 + GST. The price also includes separate Australian Standards compliant digital reports.
Feel free to call us about any of your pre-sale building and pest inspection requirements.
