Selling Your House: What a Presale Electrical Inspection Covers

Listing a house stirs up a lot of small worries. The electrical system shouldn't be one of them. A buyer's home inspector will check it, and anything they flag can turn into a negotiation. Looking at it first puts you in charge of the timing.

Why look before the buyer does

When the inspector finds a problem, you get a list with a deadline attached. Fixing things while you aren't under pressure is cheaper in stress, and often in money too. You pick the electrician. You pick the day. You're not trying to schedule a repair in the middle of a closing countdown.

Buyers read these reports closely. An electrical item can jump off the page because it sounds scary, even when the fix is small. If it's already been looked at and handled, there's less to argue about.

It also tells you what you're dealing with. Maybe the answer is "nothing, the house is fine." That's useful to know too.

What a presale inspection looks at

Thunder Electric lists panel inspections, presale inspections, and home inspection corrections as separate inspection services, starting at $150. What an electrician checks in a house like yours will vary, but the usual ground looks like this.

• The panel: whether it looks healthy, whether breakers are labeled, and whether anything shows heat damage or rust.
• Outlets and switches: whether they work, whether they're secure in the wall, and whether cover plates are missing or cracked.
• GFCI outlets: whether they trip and reset when tested.
• Visible wiring in places like the garage, attic, or crawl space, including splices that aren't inside a proper box.
• Lights and fixtures: whether they work and whether they're mounted securely.
• Outdoor outlets and lights.

Age alone isn't a defect. An older house with older wiring can be perfectly sound, and a newer one with sloppy DIY work can be a mess. What counts is the condition of what's there. Thunder Electric's residential work covers homes regardless of age or wiring condition, from a cozy historic bungalow to a modern new build.

If you're not sure which service fits your situation, tell the office what you're trying to do. They'll point you to the right one. Ask for a plain answer on what's fine, what needs fixing, and roughly what the fixing involves.

When the buyer's report arrives

The home inspector's report usually includes a section on electrical items. Common ones are missing cover plates, outlets that don't test right, a breaker with two wires under one screw, and splices outside a box. Some are quick fixes. A few are not.

Here's how to handle the list without losing a week.

• Send the electrical pages of the report to the office, not a summary. The exact wording helps.
• Tell them your closing date up front.
• Ask for the corrections in writing, so you can show the buyer's agent what was done.
• Keep the invoice. It arrives by mail and email, usually within one to two weeks after the work is done, so plan around that when you're close to closing.

Thunder Electric lists home inspection corrections as its own service, so this isn't an unusual request.

The small stuff counts too

Not every showing-day problem is on an inspection report. Diane Harkins had a closet light go out right before a realtor came to view her house, which was going up for sale. Thunder was short handed that day and still sent an electrician out late in the afternoon to fix it. Her words for it: "Very accommodating last minute request."

A dead closet light is the kind of thing a service call covers. The published price is $65 per 30 minutes with a one hour minimum. Same-day service isn't a promise, so ask when you call, but it's worth knowing the small stuff has a small price.

What not to do

Don't open the panel to take a look. Don't hide a problem with a cover plate or a bit of tape. And don't swap fixtures yourself if you aren't sure the circuit is off, because a switch being off doesn't always mean the wires are dead. Hand the work to a licensed electrician and keep the paperwork.

Planning to sell? Give the office a ring at (509) 575-8362 before the sign goes up in the yard. If something in the house is sparking or smells hot, don't wait for a weekday. The 24/7 emergency line is there for exactly that.