Providing inspection reports as a seller

[Natalie C.]

Hey everyone!

My family inherited a house through probate. The home was owned by a hoarder and the house is in pretty rough shape but in a good neighborhood (Rockridge in Oakland, CA). The home itself is VERY charming with architecture typical to the area.

The house will very likely need significant work on plumbing, foundation, electrical, etc., but per several agents is unlikely to be torn down. Very rough estimate is that $100-200k will need to be put into the house per our realtor. We cleaned out the house and are now working with our realtor to determine how much work we should put into the house before selling. We do not live in the area so will not be flipping it ourselves, would like our involvement to be minimal. ARV is probably approximately $1-1.2 for a flipper.

At this time we are planning to do only superficial improvements - paint, gut cabinets, refinish floors, etc. Current estimate from one contractor for this work is approximately $20k.

One question that we have is regarding inspections - getting both a general inspection but also detailed ones for plumbing, electrical, etc. This information would need to be disclosed to any potential buyer, correct?

Does anybody have strong opinions whether we should preemptively get inspections done on this fixer-upper, or let the buyer/flipper do it? What are the pros and cons?

Thank you!

[Wayne Brooks]

If it’s going to be a total rehab, I wouldn’t do any repairs, painting etc.....that will all get changed, just clean it out. I wouldn’t do any inspections, that will be up to the buyer.