The following information is provided to you by Rik Goodell of Goodell Structural Services.

Maybe you’ve got a contractor’s heart.  How to tell?  Okay, here’s a sure sign:  If you are the type who has upgraded (read: spent thousands $$$ on)  your home but you can’t tell by looking at it, then the bucks have probably been coughed up for a new furnace, electrical service, plumbing system, roof, seismic upgrades or all of the above. 

If this shoe fits, you know how painful it is when you get to the point where, unexpectedly, you have to sell the place.  Now you’re wondering how you are going to get your money back for all those recent, but typically unappreciated, expenses.  We all know that the shiny granite in a newly remodeled kitchen or the latest European fixtures in an upgraded bathroom will dazzle the prospective buyer.  But how are they going to admire (and be willing to pay for) the more subtle, and arguably more important, non-bling system upgrades?

We are blessed in San Francisco with many, highly qualified and very experienced home inspectors (find yours here:  ggashi.com).  San Francisco Real Estate is unique (It really is!) so we‘ve even given this house exam a different name.  Instead of the home inspection you’d find in the east bay or on the peninsula, we call it a Contractor’s Inspection.  Call one of these pros for a pre-listing inspection and then use their report as a brochure to highlight those wonderful, albeit subtle, upgrades.  The report will be from an independent, who has no axe to grind or agenda beyond discovering and defining the problems so it is generally seen as an honest representation.

The marketing angle then can be:  “Clean Slate House” with new systems and good bones ready for your own personal touches.