Realtor refuses to add home inspection report to listing??

Greeting Real Estate pros,

I am completing about 1 pre listing inspection per month, and most of my clients have found the report to be very helpful. I recently completed another, and found very few problems. The seller made all of the needed repairs and had radon and mold testing completed as well. I spoke to him today and was told the listing agent refused to include the report as part of the disclosure or advertise that it had been inspected. I would like to know from an agents point of view, why he might have taken this stance??

Thank you for any insight gained!

Few things and it depends on state disclosure laws, but here they technically don't have to disclose that an inspection was done. If the realtor did not read the report, then they themselves do not have knowledge of any issues. If the client read it and fixed all the issues, then depending on what needs to be disclosed, there may be no need to. The only was I can see that the inspection and its findings necessarily need to be disclosed is if there are problems and they are not fixed. Then the seller and/or agents (depending on if they read the report) would need to potentially disclose the issues IF the disclosure requires it. Some disclosures only ask specific questions of specific areas of the property and leave nothing extraneous to be added. I have an agent here that pays for all her high price listings to be pre-inspected. She never reads the reports. She hands them to the seller and advises them to read through the report, repair any issues, discuss with us, and if not repaired, disclose them. She wants no part of being on the hook for disclosure of issues and rightfully so.

gfricke wrote:Few things and it depends on state disclosure laws, but here they technically don't have to disclose that an inspection was done. If the realtor did not read the report, then they themselves do not have knowledge of any issues. If the client read it and fixed all the issues, then depending on what needs to be disclosed, there may be no need to. The only was I can see that the inspection and its findings necessarily need to be disclosed is if there are problems and they are not fixed. Then the seller and/or agents (depending on if they read the report) would need to potentially disclose the issues IF the disclosure requires it. Some disclosures only ask specific questions of specific areas of the property and leave nothing extraneous to be added. I have an agent here that pays for all her high price listings to be pre-inspected. She never reads the reports. She hands them to the seller and advises them to read through the report, repair any issues, discuss with us, and if not repaired, disclose them. She wants no part of being on the hook for disclosure of issues and rightfully so.

She is already "on the hook". She knows it exists - duh. She has a fiduciary duty to "reasonably inspect the home including any significant reports, repairs, etc at her disposal - that is legal case law.

Thanks fellas,

I was really wondering why he would not be interested in advertising that the home had been inspected and ALL of the repairs were made?? The radon results were low, and mold was normal. Seems like he missed out on a marketing UPS right??

Henry "Sonny" Toman wrote:Thanks fellas,

I was really wondering why he would not be interested in advertising that the home had been inspected and ALL of the repairs were made?? The radon results were low, and mold was normal. Seems like he missed out on a marketing UPS right??

Just fear of the unknown. Borderline small mindedness.

In VA you are only required to disclosed what couldn't be observed during a normal inspection. I know many other states are the same, so depending on the laws in your state anything you found may not need to be disclosed. You think I disclosed everything I knew about my house when I sold it. No freaking way. It was the inspectors job to find it.

Its not necessary to include all these details in the listing. These things can be discussed when a potential buyer visits your property.

Any solid RE Agent will advise their Buyer to have the house inspected regardless.
William is correct, it goes beyond fiduciary responsibility and is now case law, Sellers/Agent required to disclose.

She is playing all three parts; Mizaru, who sees no evil; Kikazaru, who hears no evil; and Iwazaru, who speaks no evil.