Why Your Home Needs to Be Certified Pre-Owned

St. Louis Real Estate Podcast with Sandie Hea

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You’ve all been to car dealerships and seen certified pre-owned vehicles. It’s one thing to look beautiful on the outside and have clean carpets, new tires, belts, and hoses, but that certification makes you feel much better about purchasing that car.

I apply the same principle to my sellers’ homes. A certified pre-owned home comes with a number of benefits. You should consider the following if you’re thinking about listing soon.

1. You won’t be surprised by the home inspection. You will know everything about your property already, so you won’t have to worry about a long list of repairs from the buyer. You also won’t have to take any of the money earmarked for your new property and put it towards repairs.

2. You will save time and money if you have big-ticket repairs to make. By taking care of these items before you list the property, you can find the right contractor to fix your roof or the right electrician to get everything up to code. You won’t have to worry about paying overtime charges because you won’t have that ten-day deadline to respond to the buyer.

3. You will increase your chances of paying for top dollar. Getting your property certified pre-owned gives the buyer every reason to pay top dollar for the house. Being certified shows that a professional has inspected your home and found that all the systems are working.

I recently worked with a couple who were selling their 19-year-old house. They were the original owners and the home appeared to be in mint condition, so they decided they didn’t want the property to be certified pre-owned.

When the inspection came through from the buyer, the roof had hail damage they didn’t know about, and numerous windows had broken thermal seals. They had to get three bids on the roof, interview window replacement companies, and deal with the insurance company. Plus the inspection report said 10 windows had broken seals, but the window companies only found five to seven broken seals.

Luckily, the seller was able to stay home to meet with all of these people, but if the property had been certified pre-owned, they wouldn’t have had to deal with any of this in the first place.

If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you.