Most common lender required repairs prior to closing you need to know about and fix.
Fixes that banks demand
What are the most common bank-required repairs you need to know about as a homeowner? When you sell your home, the buyer that’s most likely to give you the most money is a buyer that’s going to go to a bank to get a loan. Before they grant a loan, they’re going to want to make sure the home is in a quality and condition acceptable to their guidelines, meaning there can’t be catastrophic or even sometimes minor repairs needed before closing.
To make sure it meets their guidelines, they do an appraisal, inspect, and make the homeowner repair issues before closing. So, it makes sense you take care of these items before it’s too late because little, anyone requirement like this could kill the deal, and that can cost you tens of thousands of dollars and lots of time because then you have to go back on the market.
So here are the most common bank repair items that I see. Number one, smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detectors. It would help if you had these per code, and the bank will require it. So go through your bedrooms and make sure you have smoke alarms. It would help if you also had carbon monoxide detectors outside the living areas or the sleeping areas. Even if your home is all-electric, put them in any way because it’s a Washington State law. Y
Number two, straps on the hot water tank. They are also called hurricane or earthquake straps, one on the top of their hot water tank, one on the bottom. And I know some of your hot water tanks are in bizarre spots and are hard to get to but do your best. And if you need a contractor or a handyperson to do these items, reach out to us. We have a handyman that can take care of this for you.
Other common repairs that we see, any hole in the drywall more extensive than a quarter-inch, patch it up, fix it. Probably an easy way to improve the value of your home is to patch up all the holes, even the tiny ones, and paint your house white or off-white.
Exposed wiring, any exposed wiring needs to be taken care of. So look at your outlets, broken outlets, covers, damaged outlets, broken electrical switches. Anything that has to do with electrical, you’re going to want to fix. Most likely, an electrician needs to do that. But if you’re a handy homeowner, you can work on your electrical at your own risk but be extremely careful.
Any leaking plumbing, leaking water is a big red flag. It’s going to be called out by the inspector. So make sure you look underneath your sinks around your toilets. Pro tip: If your bathrooms have been in for over ten years, they’re probably getting worn out. The wax ring gets worn out. That’s a common leak that’s so slow you don’t even know what’s happening.
Chipping and peeling paint, interior or exterior, is a red flag. Exposed, unsealed materials are more likely to be damaged from moisture and costly to repair.
Now they’re going to call out any condition that’s less than a three. Well, what does that mean? Well, state less than a three. Condition three is average. So, in any situation that’s less than average, you would know it. That’s fair or poor. If you look at something in your house and you’re like, “That’s poor,” that probably needs to be replaced.
So, what would be poor? Poor, stained carpet. Poor. Right? So significant stains or rips in your carpet could be called out. Flooring that’s coming apart will be called out.
In this hot market, there are a chance buyers will overlook everything that’s wrong with your house and still give you top dollar. But at the same time, I’ve been in the industry long enough where it was a buyer’s market, and you had to repair everything. You had to replace the carpets. You had to do new countertops. You had to upgrade your house to get it sold. We’re not quite there at the moment, but you never know.
Please reach out to us if you have any questions about what repairs will be needed or if you need some advice.
Nick McLean
Nick McLean Real Estate Group
Call us at 509.255.8070
Nick@Nickmclean.com