In Real Estate, the Final Walk-Through Deserves Your Full Attention

You found the house of your dreams!  That’s wonderful...Congratulations! You have an accepted contract, you’ve done the inspection, lined up insurance, your lender is on track and you are headed for closing! But wait...you need to do a final walk-through first.
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Most buyers wait until the day of closing and right before the actual closing is to take place, they run through the house real quick and rush out the door to sign on the dotted line so they can move into their beautiful new home.

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But the final walk-through is more than just making sure the house is still standing. It is also to make sure that everything that was in working order before the inspection, is still in working order. You don’t need to do another inspection, just make sure that are not any new problems, like a new faucet leak, or a branch fell on the roof and damages incurred from that. You should also check to make sure that all outlets are still in working order. You can easily do this by bringing your cell phone charger to test all the outlets.
Also, remember the hurricane that we just had? All buyers should have checked on their soon to be new houses to see that the sellers fixed any storm damage before closing.

​Do you remember all of those repairs that the inspection called for and that you negotiated with the Seller about? Well, the walk thru is when you check to make sure all of those repairs were in fact done to your satisfaction. It’s not uncommon to schedule two walk-throughs.  The first one identifies the issues, and the second one makes sure that those issues were taken care of.
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Otherwise, you may have to push the closing back to address the issues.  And that may be a problem if your lender has not approved a delay in closing.

Sellers are notorious for leaving junk behind. Make sure you check every closet, every cabinet, the garage and the attic for any “gifts” that they decided to leave you. Some things really are helpful to have, like leftover paint in case you need to paint over a scuff and you don’t know what color they used. But most of the junk is just that...junk that they didn’t feel like moving. So make a note everything that is still in the house during the walk-through and ask that they remove it before closing.

​Finally, I must end with a warning. The house is not going to look like what you remembered.  
When you first saw the house, it most likely had furniture in it and it was someone's home. Now it is empty and cold.
​Just brace yourself for the fact that it may not be as inviting as it was when you fell in love.
Remember that the house is now a blank slate for you to create new memories and family fun!

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