Here is how it usually goes. You accept an offer. The buyer’s inspector spends three hours in your attic and under your sinks. A few days later a 40-page report lands, and with it a request for repairs, a request for a price cut, or both. You are negotiating against a deadline, with a buyer who now has a list, and with no time to get your own bids.
A pre-listing inspection flips that order. You hire the inspector first, you read the report first, and you decide what to fix, what to price in and what to disclose while you still have time and leverage.
01
What the buyer gets to do anyway
Under the standard Texas resale contract, the seller must give the buyer and the buyer’s agents access at reasonable times, and the buyer may have the property inspected by inspectors the buyer selects who are licensed by the Texas Real Estate Commission or otherwise permitted by law to make inspections.1 Most buyers also negotiate an option period, during which they can terminate for any reason.1 In practice, that means the inspection report is what the option period gets spent negotiating over.
Inspections of substantially complete homes for Texas buyers and sellers are generally reported on a standard state form, TREC’s Property Inspection Report, REI 7-6.2 So the report you commission looks like the one the buyer will get, which makes it easy to compare the two.
02
What it costs
Angi puts the national average for a home inspection at $344, with most falling between $296 and $424, based on its survey of customers.3 Larger and older homes, and add-ons like a sewer scope, cost more. On a Northwest Dallas sale, it is a rounding error next to one lost week on the market.
03
What it won’t find
A general inspection is a visual inspection. Under TREC’s Standards of Practice, inspectors are not required to inspect anything buried, hidden, latent or concealed, sub-surface drainage systems, or pests and wood-destroying insects, and they are not required to estimate the life expectancy of a system or provide repair cost estimates.4 TREC also says a sewer scope has to be performed by a licensed plumber, not a home inspector.5
On an older house, that matters. If your home has its original cast iron drain line, a plumber’s camera may tell you more than anything else you spend money on. We explain why in remodel or flip?
| General inspection | Structure, roof, electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling, appliances, on the TREC form |
|---|---|
| Sewer scope | Licensed plumber with a camera, for older drain lines |
| Wood-destroying insects | Separate licensed pest inspection |
| Foundation | A structural engineer, if the inspector flags movement |
04
The trade-off: once you know, you know
This is the part sellers need to hear before they book one. The Texas seller’s disclosure notice asks what you are aware of.6 A pre-listing report makes you aware. If it turns up a problem, you can’t unknow it, and it belongs on your disclosure. Our guide to the seller’s disclosure notice covers what the form asks.
We think that’s a feature, not a bug. A defect you disclose up front, with a repair receipt or a price that reflects it, is a fact. The same defect discovered by a buyer’s inspector in the middle of an option period is a surprise, and surprises are what make buyers nervous and deals fall apart.
A defect you disclose is a fact. A defect the buyer finds is a surprise.
05
What to do with the report
Fix the easy things. Loose outlets, missing covers, a slow drain, a tripped GFCI. Cheap to fix, and each one you fix is one fewer line on the buyer’s report.
Get bids on the big things. A roof, a foundation, a drain line, an HVAC system near the end of its life. Either fix it with permits and keep the receipts, or keep the bids and price the house knowing the number.
Decide whether to share it. Some sellers hand the report to every buyer, along with the repair invoices. It builds confidence, and it tells a buyer you aren’t hiding anything. Talk it through with us; the right answer depends on what the report says.
If the repairs point toward bigger decisions, read should I renovate before I sell?
Fixing things before you list matters more now that the appraiser documents them too. Starting with appraisals submitted on or after November 2, 2026, the new report logs defects by location and photographs every kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. Here is how to get ready for the new appraisal.
06
When we recommend one
For an older house, a house you haven’t lived in lately, an estate, or any house where you suspect there’s something you don’t know, we usually say yes. For a newer home you have maintained carefully, it’s a closer call. Either way, it’s a few hundred dollars to decide with information instead of hope.
Everything we have written for sellers is on one page: Selling a home in Dallas →