5 - Account for every penny. You might be sureprised to see exactly where your pennies are going, I know I was. When we spend anything less than $5, we rarely pay attention to it and think of it as trivial - that is until you realize you’ve spend $5 (or less) in 10 different places over course of a week - that’s $50/week give or take, $200/month - that’s almost an entire car payment. One of best investments you can make is in some accounting software such as Microsoft Money (which I use personally) or Quicken. If you’re really tight on finances, get a ledger notebook and keep it meticulously ordered and balanced. Keeping track of your money isn’t nearly as difficult as it may seem. Setting up your software usually takes less than an hour - then at end of each day - it takes about 15 minutes or less to update your transactions (depending on amount of spending and deposits). Some helpful hints: - Use software whenever possible - less work and less room for errors in balancing, also, you can quickly see where most of your money goes with charts and graphs. - Update your transactions daily. If you let it go too long, you run risk of overlooking some transactions and that’s definitely not accounting for every penny. - Save your receipts. This will come in handy when you’re updating your transactions at end of day. Save all your important receipts as well - i.e. high end electronics, furniture, appliances, etc. - If you go on vacation take a small notebook with you so you can jot down how much you spend and where at end of day. When you return home, spend some time updating it in your software program (or ledger). - Back up your records on a CD-R or floppy and save it in a fireproof safe. Try to back up your information at least once every other day. Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

These rules of engagement may take a bit of getting used to, but you may find yourself pleasantly surprised at results.

In most cases, seller's feel good getting peace of mind of knowing that no major event or expense will be uncovered by buyer's inspector. And on rare occasion when it is discovered by pre-listing inspector that roof is completely shot or there is some other big expense or danger, sellers, while not happy to have problem, are glad to have discovered it on their own terms. The small expense of inspection is always less then cost and aggravation of a hurried hunt to get something repaired or replaced after home is under contract.

Save pain, spend money. Get every home inspected prior to putting it on market!

3. "The home is selling 'as is'."

This may be best reason of all to inspect at listing! If home is being sold "as is", reduce your risk and liability as seller by getting a pre-listing inspection. In order for home to sell quickly and at highest price, disclose every condition of home. The inspection gives both buyer and seller comfort of knowing that home "is as it is". With a pre-listing inspection, there is a high likelihood that home is as represented.

Even in an "as is" contract, buyer may still have their own inspection performed. If these two inspections are similar in content, it is rare buyer will walk or counter offer. That, in fact, is goal of "as is" sale.

Another concern of sellers is that they will have to repair every item that is discovered to be discrepant on inspection report. This is simply not true. It would be true that every discrepant item needs to be disclosed, and those disclosures may impact value and hence asking price, but nothing need necessarily be corrected.

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