Wondering do I need an electrical inspection to sell my house? It’s in your best interest to have it done.
No you do not need an electrical inspection to sell your house. It is however in your best interest to get one done. This will prevent the buyer from using this as a bargaining chip.
So Do I Need An Electrical Inspection To Sell My House?
Although you do not need an electrical inspection to sell your house it is in your best interest to have one done.
Having an electrical inspection done to the home shows the buyer that there are no electrical deficiencies within the home.
You can either have this done by a home inspector and write up a report. Or you can have it done by a professional electrician or inspection authority.
This saves the buyer from having to do it.
It also saves the buyer as using it for a bargaining chip to try to come back on you to get the price of the house cheaper.
You want the sale of your home to go as effortless as possible and you don’t need complicate the whole experience.
What Is Involved If I Do?
You can order a home inspection yourself from your local home inspector.
They will give you a report of the whole home including plumbing, electrical, heating and any minor deficiencies.
You can have these deficiencies repaired before you decide to sell the home.
This will save the buyer from getting their own home inspector and determining the deficiencies to pick out.
Does The Buyer Need An Electrical Inspection?
The buyer does not need to get an electrical inspection.
Although most times they will. They will have that inspector come in and write up a deficiency report.
If you do this for them already and you can include this in the price of the house. Then there will be no arguing when it comes to repairing the electrical.
Most times if the buyer gets an inspection report or home inspector involved, they will try to get prices from local electricians.
The local electricians will inflate the price of the electrical work that needs to be done.
The buyer will then try to stipulate that they want this price knocked off the purchase price of the home. We see this commonly and we see it often.
Can You Sell A House With Old Wiring?
Oh yes you can sell a house with old wiring.
There’s nothing saying that you can’t. There are sales of homes every day with all old wiring.
It’s up to the individual , if you want to sell a home like that.
Get your local home inspector to draft up a report saying that you’re not responsible for the wiring in the home.
This includes like things like underground wiring.
Grounded neutrals or anything else that can be a unforeseen issue that are not obvious.
Keep in mind that many homes are sold with all old wiring.
There is nothing actually wrong with older wiring provided that it does not added to or changed in anyway.
Just just make sure that the breaker or fuse sizing is correct and there are no deficiencies with the wiring.
You may want to do a formal inspection of any rodent damage as rodents tend to work their way into older homes.
In this case you should have those wires replace that are damaged by rodents.
Believe it or not rodents will chew wires in places that you never thought of.
Rodents will actually chew the newer style white NMD lumex wire. The reason for this is because the casing of the wire has a soy base in it to create the casing.
Rodents will love this. That’s why you can see entire sections of the outer casing of the insulation chewed off.
Do I Need To Rewire My House To Sell It?
It is up to you whether you would like to rewire your home to make it more marketable for the sale.
There’s nothing saying that you cannot sell the home the way it is.
At the very minimum we recommend if you have a fuse panel to have proper few sizing installed.
Your local electrician can do this for you, if you do not understand how to do it.
Also make sure that your smoke detectors are up-to-date the batteries are changed.
In addition to that you can make sure all your GFCI protection is working.
As far as re-wiring the home itself this is always a good suggestion as it will make the home more marketable however it is not a requirement.
How Do You Pass An Electrical Inspection?
All wiring inspectors are a little bit different and they have different expectations.
However they do follow a code book and code guidelines. They cannot call you on deficiencies exceeding from that code.
If you have all of the deficiencies corrected as mentioned above then the wiring inspector will be hard-pressed to fail the inspection.
Check for additional items like wires or loose hanging items in the basement.
Make sure they are properly fastened and stapled up to the joist cavity.
Neatness the key to passing an electrical inspection. If you have obvious issues in your home like missing or broken switch plates, hanging light fixtures that are incomplete or broken.
These are all issues that you should have fixed up before your electrical inspection. The inspector will pick these out and include these in the inspection.
Does An Inspection From A Home Inspector Count?
An electrical inspection among other trades being done to the home before the sale can help you in the sale of the home.
However this does not count for a formal electrical inspection which will be required by an insurance company.
Many factors of the inspection are done certified electricians or certified inspection authority.
They simply come into the home to write up a report and pick out any deficiencies they see based on their experience.
This seems to be an excepted method when the transition of a home takes place from buyer to seller or seller to buyer.
What Is The Cost Of A Home Inspector ?
How much home inspectors charge anywhere between 200 and $600 to write up an inspection report.
They will thoroughly come in and inspect your home and create a report reflecting any deficiencies within the home.
You can present this to the buyer or you can have these deficiencies repaired with a second inspection to make the report look cleaner.
One of the reasons that home inspectors certificates or inspection reports qualify better than individual sub trades is just for that reason.
They give you a total package of plumbing or heating construction style roofing and electrical all in one report.
This gives the buyer a total idea of what could be possibly wrong with the property.
When you hire a specific inspector that only covers one trade area.
For example the electrical inspector would not inspect your plumbing. This results in more work for you so this is why we recommend hiring a home inspector.
What Are The Costs If I Do Decide To Rewire?
Rewiring your home can become very costly.
However the best time to rewire the home is when it’s empty before the sale of the home takes place.
You can do a percentage rewire which means you do not rewire the whole house. Or you can do a whole rewire.
Keep in mind that there would be some damage repair to get the wires from point a to point B throughout the home.
You will need to have a contractor come in and patch up any holes that are made by the electricians.
Depending on the size of the home the average home can run between $10,000 and $14,000 depending on the depth of the project.
Most times homeowners will re-wire plugs on the first floor and also plugs and lights are up on the second floor. You can access both of these from the basement and the attic.
The problem is if it is a two-story home and you cannot reach the middle floor section without causing damage.
This usually results in the first floor lights not getting re-wired.
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