“A home inspection is one of the last hurdles that buyers and sellers have to get through before the sale of the property is complete.”

After that definitive declaration, the moving.com web site goes on to detail the importance of home inspections. It is unarguable—as far as it goes. It does capture the angst that can sometimes accompany St. Cloud home inspections, particularly when a seller isn’t really certain that all the property’s systems will pass muster.

The thorough going-over by a professional St. Cloud home inspector can reveal weaknesses that are unknown to the current owner—and that call for immediate attention. If too many individual issues come to light, even though they all may all be corrected without undue expense, the sheer number can spook a buyer.

That mere possibility can spawn anxiety and sleepless nights for the seller, coming when it does (in moving.com’s phrase) as “one of the last hurdles” in the runup to closing. For homeowners who are less than certain about all the details of their property, those doubts can postpone any decision to go ahead and put it on the market—even when there are good reasons that suggest the time is right for a move. Since holding the disposition of the family’s greatest asset off the table can have expensive consequences, it’s fortunate that there is a simple, inexpensive way to break up the logjam:

Order a preemptive home inspection.

It’s also called a “pre-listing” home inspection—but you don’t have to be planning to sell your St. Cloud home to benefit from this simple action. It’s one that surprisingly few homeowners pursue. That’s too bad—because for what usually costs just a few hundred dollars, they would be apt to learn details about their property that only an expert’s eye can unearth—but which might tip them off to serious problems likely to cause major expense later on. And for those who are contemplating listing in the immediate future, a preemptive inspection report gives owners a clear idea of what the buyer’s report would reveal—and to decide whether to take action to prevent surprises from upending a sale.

A preemptive home inspection is a good way to flatten the hurdle of last-minute inspection surprises. Call me for more ideas that experience has shown to remove other “hurdles” from your home’s sale.

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