Kee Electrical - Birmingham, Huntsville

Nowadays, you face a lot of challenges when you decide you want to sell your home. Competition is stiff; it’s a buyer’s market today since there are more people selling their homes than there are buyers. So when you finally decide to put up your home for sale, you need to look into a few small, but nonetheless essential, things.

For instance, you should realize — and be ready — for home inspection. Chances are good that prospective buyers are going to want your home thoroughly inspected by a professional home inspector on their behalf and correct any code violations. This makes sense since they will want to make sure they are making a sound investment. After all, buying a home is no small investment.

Electrical violations are often the most common things that tend to stand out during professional home inspections. Electrical violations include the following: improper grounding, lack of covering for the electrical panels, electrical work done by an electrician who is unlicensed or does not have a permit, and electrical wiring that does not conform to requirements. When you are selling your home, you wouldn’t want these electrical violations reflected in a home inspector’s report for prospective buyers to see.

You will need to look into your home’s electrical set up to make sure everything is in order. Required updates and repairs should be done prior to putting up that “Home for Sale” sign on your front yard.

A lot of homeowners, though, confuse defects from code violations; these two are different. Defects refer to the general wear and tear on specific parts of a house. Code violations, on the other hand, refer to an element or elements in the construction of the home that is or are not built according to code standards. Many older homes can have code violations; they may have been originally built up to code standards of the time they were built (e.g., 30 years ago), but they have not been updated so they have a few structural elements that are out of date today.

Realize that a poor report from a professional home inspector can have a huge impact on the offers that you will receive from prospective buyers. Don’t expect buyers to offer a high price on your home that has plenty of code violations, such as electrical violations. They simply won’t want to deal with problems in repairing or even being help responsible for not taking action on those violations later.

Many older homes tend to electrical installation and panels that are double tapped. Some electrical defects in many older homes may include shorted or dead outlets, and missing electrical junction box covers. Electrical code violations, such as broken or poorly installed smoke detectors, can be corrected rather easily.

Many of the electrical violations in homes result from hiring electricians that are not licensed, do not have a permit, and are not aware of standard electrical requirements. It is a good idea to have a certified, licensed and insured electrician inspect your home, do any repairs and bring your violations up to electrical code before you invite prospective buyers (and their home inspectors) in.

However, be mindful of which repair or improvement to do on your home. You do not want to do too many improvements on your home that are not going to raise its value, but you will want to have those obvious problems, defects and code violations repaired and corrected.