How to Prepare for a Final Walk Through When Selling a Lakeland Home

As the name implies, the final walk through inspection is the last time your buyer can walk through and visually inspect the house before signing the closing papers.

Below we’ll point out what buyers normally look for during the inspection, your responsibilities as a seller and a creative way to sell your Lakeland Area house without having to deal with cleaning, decluttering, repairs or final walk through inspections.  

The purpose of the final walk through is for the buyer to make sure that:

• All required and agreed upon repairs have been completed
• The major systems such as electrical, plumbing and HVAC are in working order
• Appliances are in working condition
• There are no unexpected changes or damage to the house since the initial visit
• All fixtures are still present and have not been swapped with inferior quality replacements 
• The home is being delivered clean, free of debris and in broom swept condition 

What you should do as a seller to breeze through the final walk through inspection

By the time the final walk through inspection is scheduled, you most likely have  invested a lot of time and effort in the process of selling your Lakeland house. 

After fixing, cleaning and staging your house, listing the property, showing the home, negotiating the contract, and waiting for your buyer’s mortgage approval, it is in your best interest to avoid problems with the final walk through inspection. 

Final inspection issues can lead to stressful re-negotiations, delays, litigation and the possibility of the buyers backing out of the purchase. 

With that in mind, make sure that all the items we listed in the above section are completed. 

Even better, to guarantee that there will be no final inspection issues or last-minute surprises, inspect your house as if you were the buyer. 

Use this Final Buyer Walk Through Inspection Checklist below (courtesy of fitsmallbusiness.com).

Final Walk Through Checklist

1. Make Sure All Agreed Upon Repairs Are Complete (give credit to source)

If your seller agreed to make repairs to the home as a term of the sales agreement, make sure they are professionally and thoroughly completed. If you are unfamiliar with construction, having a certified home inspector with you at the walk through might end up saving you thousands of dollars.

2. Make Sure the Plumbing Works As It Should 

Of all the home systems, plumbing tends to have the highest rate of failure, and is also very expensive to fix. You should test the plumbing extensively during your walk through.

• • • Do all faucets still work?
    • Does the hot water come on quickly enough?
    • Let the water run for at least a minute. Is there any sputtering or rust-colored water?
    • Run the hot water for at least 5 minutes. Does it stay hot? Rapid changes between hot and cold? Sputtering?
    • Do the faucets still drip when shut off? For how long?
    • Check the pipes under the sinks for new leaks
    • Check the hot water heater and any exposed pipes in the basement for leaks after running the water for 5 minutes
    • Check the toilets. Do they flush quickly? Don’t worry about “running” toilets as they can be fixed with a $17 kit.
    • Partially fill the sinks and bathtub and let them drain. Do they drain quickly? Check under the sinks after draining to check for leaks.

3. Test all Appliances

• • • Make sure they’re still there! This may sound silly, but the homeowner or their movers may have decided to take a nice dishwasher or washing machine and swapped them out at the last minute. If the home was vacant, thieves could have broken in and stolen them. You should have a list of appliances and brands/model numbers to check against.
    • Make sure they still work. Run the dishwasher and washing machine. Do they still work? Are they making loud noises or shuddering more than they were at inspection? Do the doors shut properly?
    • Check for leaks. If you can, check for leaks behind the appliance where they are connected to the plumbing. There are puddles of water around the appliance?
    • Make sure they are in good condition and clean. Accidents happen when people are moving. Are there any new scratches or gouges on the front of the appliances?
    • Check all burners on the stove and see if the oven still works
    • Test the range hood exhaust fan
    • Test the garbage disposal

4. Test HVAC Systems

• • • Turn on the heat and AC and make sure all registers blow hot/cold air
    • Set a temperature when you arrive and check each room with a thermometer to see how close it gets.

5. Check the Home for Moving Damages

• • • Check wood and linoleum floors for new deep scratches (not normal wear and tear) and check tile floors for new cracking or stains.
    • Check walls (especially behind doors) for holes, scratches, marks, or cracks in sheetrock or plaster
    • Make sure all doors open and close without scraping the floor
    • Check for broken or cracked windows or glass doors
    • Check for broken or missing screen doors

6. Check the Electrical Outlets and Light Switches

• • • Test all outlets with your outlet tester or a multimeter
    • Test all light switches (including dimmers) and fan switches
    • Test all light fixtures
    • Test the circuit breakers by turning them off then on again- They should be stiff. If they are too loose, you might need to replace the breaker.
    • Check porch/driveway lights

7. Make Sure Homeowner’s Belongings Are Gone

• • • If your contract stipulates that the home should be free from all the homeowners’ personal items, then make sure they are all cleared out. You should remember to check:
    • The garage
    • The attic
    • The yard and any outbuildings

8. Inspect The Front, Back, & Side Yards

• • • Make sure all outdoor lights and outlets work
    • Make sure the pool filter, hot tub controls etc work as they did during inspection
    • Look for badly damaged landscaping, uprooted bushes, etc
    • Make sure gates for fences open and close properly or as they did during inspection 

9. Inspect The Exterior

• • • Look for newly broken shingles, siding, or paving stones that could have been damaged during the move
    • Visually inspect the gutters and downspouts for new damage
    • If it rained recently, look for pools of water along the edge of the wall, or in front of basement windows

10. Make Sure the Home is Broom Clean

This will largely depend on your contract, but even if your contract does not stipulate the home be “broom clean” for the closing, you should still look for major cleanliness issues. Extremely dirty or stained walls from movers, for example, can mean an expensive painting job

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If even after all your best efforts, your house fails an appraisal inspection. Then follow the advice in this blog post, What to Do if Your House Fails an Appraisal Inspection Lakeland, Florida

Want to sell your Lakeland house with no final walk through inspection?