Why You Need a Property Survey Before Buying or Selling Your Home

Why You Need a Property Survey Before Buying or Selling Your Home

Buying or selling a new property is an exciting time and also a major investment. Make sure that your investment is a fruitful one by getting a full property survey beforehand. 

You could be left cleaning up a prior owner’s environmental mess without one. Remediation costs can easily climb in the millions of dollars range.

Check out this property survey checklist to find out what to look for when buying or selling a property.

Contents

Environmental Site Assessment

This will be one of the first things that you should get done when surveying a property. It includes things such as soil and groundwater testing.

An environmental site assessor will test for things such as heavy metals, pollutants, and other toxic hazardous materials.

The last thing you want to do is inherit a brownfield or superfund site from a previous owner. The cleanup costs can outweigh the price of the property and you are obligated by law to take care of them.

Building and Home Inspection

If there are any existing structures on your property of interest, you will want to get these inspected. This is to verify their structural integrity as well as to make sure that they are up to local building codes.

Make sure to identify any major repair jobs for each building, as this can affect the total value of the property.

As part of this, you will also want to pursue a pest inspection to make sure there are no infestations present. Here are a few common pest control questions to get you pointed in the right direction.

Property Survey

If there is a conflict of interest about the boundaries of your property, it is important to get them delineated. Call a professional surveyor to assist you in identifying a property’s boundaries.

This is very important if you plan on building new structures or expanding existing ones.

Property Valuation

Getting a proper property valuation is an important part of a pre-handover inspection. During a property valuation inspection, a professional analyzes existing aspects of a property and puts a dollar value on them.

This includes identifying areas of disrepair that need full remodels or revamps. This can affect the overall asking price for a seller.

If you have the opportunity to conduct an independent property valuation assessment as a buyer, you could save big bucks off the initial asking price. Just make sure to contact the seller for permission beforehand.

Getting a property’s value appraised is even more important if you are inheriting a property whose value has yet to be determined or updated.

Whether you are buying or selling, make sure to get a property valuation inspection done.

Don’t Neglect Your Property Survey

Getting a proper property survey and inspection before buying or selling a home is vital. Without one, you could be in for a major headache.

As a buyer, you could inherit someone else mess. As a seller, you could be missing out on a higher asking price.

Get a property survey done today and for all of your other news and information, make sure to check out the rest of our page.

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