So, your offer has been accepted, we’ve made it past home inspections and navigated through a lot of the tricky parts of a real estate transit action. Tomorrow is closing and this home is now gonna be your baby. The final home walkthrough is the last step before the keys are in your hands. So let’s talk about the purpose of the final home walkthrough.
Number one is to make sure that the property is vacant free and clear of traps and debris.
Number two is to make sure that any items that were agreed upon to be repaired per the home inspection have actually been repaired.
And number three, to ensure that between the purchase time and the home inspection, there are no new issues that have cropped up.
Now, let’s talk about your right on a final home walkthrough. The contracts say that you actually have five days prior to closing to do your final home walkthrough. Your home inspector is actually able to attend your walkthrough with you. However, I will say that in most cases, the home inspector is not re-engaged. So here are a few details about your final home walkthrough. Typically this walkthrough is not as lengthy as the home inspection. A home inspection may take two to four hours to perform typically on a walkthrough. You’re looking at 30 minutes to maybe an hour or so.
So what are some of the things that are looked for in a final home walkthrough?
- To determine when you do the final home walkthrough as mentioned earlier, contractually, you can do it at any time within five days of closing. However, I suggest that with homes where there are more repairs needed, typically it’s good to do it maybe three to four days before closing. This gives you plenty of time to make sure that all repairs that were agreed upon to be performed have been done, and if they haven’t been done, it gives time to get contractors back through, to finish up the last-minute details. Now with homes that are in better condition where there are fewer repairs required. I usually suggest one to maybe two days prior to the closing.
- Bring a checklist. It’s good to stay on task as you’re going through to make sure that you check all the items that are necessary. Now, it’s easy to get all excited about the house and moving in and potentially overlook some items that you really need to check out.
- Repair invoices. Now I can’t stress this one enough. If there are items that were agreed upon to be repaired by the seller, you wanna make sure that you get that repair invoices well ahead of time so that you can compare that as you’re walking through the property.
- Turn on appliances. Now when you enter the home, probably the best thing to do is go to the dishwasher washer and dryer, turn them on and let them run a full cycle.
- Heating and HVAC. You wanna make sure that obviously in the heating season that your heat is working and you wanna make sure in the cooling season that the cooling’s working now, I do recommend in the heating season, you don’t wanna be turning it on to the air conditioning, as well as in the heating system, you don’t want to be turning it onto the heating system. Either one of those things could potentially do damage to the system.
- Open all windows. You wanna make sure that all windows open, close, and when they are open that they actually stay open.
- Plumbing items. You’re gonna want to turn on all showers, bathtub, faucets, sink faucets, of course, one at a time to check ’em all out a pro tip. When checking out a sink, it’s always best to fill the sink up about three-quarters of the way full, let the water sit, release the stopper, let the water drain down and then check underneath to make sure that there’s no leaking. The added weight will actually show a slow leak. Whereas just running the water through the trap may not.
- Electrical items. I always suggest that you buy a $10 outlet detector at a place like Lowe’s or Home Depot and simply plug the detector into the outlet. It’ll let you know if electricity is flowing to that outlet. It’s also not bad to bring a light bulb or two. Sometimes we come across a light fixture where there might be a bulb out. Well, is it a bulb out or is it something bigger? This is where we’re gonna use that light bulb. Screw it in. Hey, if that works awesome. We know it’s just the bulb’s simple fix. If it’s something greater, the bulb won’t turn on and that’s something we might want to mention to the seller before we go to closing.
So there you go. My eight tips for doing a final home walkthrough. Once again, let’s go over the whole reason we’re doing this number one. It’s to make sure that the sellers have moved outta the property and it’s vacant free and clear to ration debris. Number two, we wanna make sure that any repairs that were agreed upon have been done, and number three, we wanna make sure basically the house is in the same physical condition as it was at the time of contract and home inspection. Hey, do you guys have any other ideas of things we might want to check on a final home walkthrough? Please mention it in the comment section below.
If you have any other questions about buying or selling real estate in Montgomery County, Maryland, or the entire DMV area make sure to contact me by clicking the link below:
https://calendly.com/kevin-grolig/consultation-with-real-kevin
