Before you list your home for sale, you may want to hire a home inspection professional to look for potential problems with your home. A buyer that's interested in your home will hire their own inspector too, but knowing the condition of your home upfront allows you to set the price properly and be prepared for negotiations with the buyer.

These are things the home inspection will check and how the information can help you as a home seller.

Areas of Your Home Checked During an Inspection

A home inspection for a real estate sale checks areas of your home that are readily accessible. This means the plumbing might be checked by testing all faucets, noting water pressure, and looking for signs of leaks or previous water damage. However, a typical real estate home inspection wouldn't involve looking into sewer lines with a pipe camera. For a more involved inspection like that, you would have to hire a plumber for an in-depth inspection.

Besides plumbing, the home inspector checks all major systems and parts of the house. This includes the roof, electrical system, siding, windows, doors, and interior of your home. The inspector looks for signs of foundation, water, and insect damage as well as things like properly grounded electricity, and upgrades that might violate current codes.

A home inspection can be lengthy, and you'll be given an oral or written report. You can also accompany the inspector to listen to comments as they work and ask questions about what they find.

How Paying for a Home Inspection Benefits You

If you've maintained your house well, you may not get any nasty surprises during the inspection. However, if the inspector turns up something like a roof leak, it's better to know in advance rather than wait for the buyer's inspector to find it. You'll have the option of paying for roof repairs or getting a quote for the repairs and lowering the selling price of the house.

If nothing is found wrong with the house during the inspection, then you'll have a selling point that is favorable to potential buyers. When you share the results of a home inspection that show no major problems, your home might sell quicker and be at less risk of having trouble at closing time.

Another important reason to have a home inspection is that it proves w hat you knew about the condition of your home. If something negative is found, you can then disclose it to buyers and not worry about being sued after the sale if the buyer finds out the roof is bad or the house has another problem.

Learn more about home inspections, visit websites such as moldtestingandhomeinspections.com