Part of preparing any property for your local real estate market means following state and federal regulations in order to get things off the ground and make the transaction a success. To ensure your home is up to snuff for inspection and appraisal, while also helping you to prioritize any work that your home needs to make the sale, let’s look into the minimum condition requirements for home sellers in Atlanta.
How These Requirements Came to Be
The Federal Housing Administration, or FHA, is a division of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In tandem, these federal organizations oversee different aspects of the housing market in the United States, including residential conditions and mitigation or minimization of financial risk to both buyers and lenders. Founded in 1934, the FHA operates in part to safeguard homebuyers from purchasing a property that could have critical defects likely to cause severe issues for any owner.
The FHA and HUD were both founded at a time when the housing market in the United States was very different, the vast majority of US citizens were renters, and residential health and safety concerns were growing rapidly.
The Three S’s
While there is not a strict labeling system implemented by the FHA when it comes to condition requirements, the minimum standards are concentrated on three particular areas: Safety, security, and soundness.
Safety standards exist to protect and promote the general health of occupants and avoid bodily harm. Security is concerned with protection of personal property within the residence. And Soundness focuses on structural elements that could lead to more fundamental construction problems, such as total collapse.
Evaluation of the Minimum Condition Requirements
When a home undergoes an appraisal, the appraiser is trained to specifically take into account the condition of the property and all of its individual components.
By doing a thorough examination of both the interior and exterior, the appraiser then uses the features and condition of the home to estimate an overall value. It’s common for owners and buyers to be a bit confused about how the appraisal compares to a home inspection.
A home inspection is another type of thorough examination, but it is done by a licensed home inspector – not an appraiser – who focuses more on the operation of a home’s infrastructure.
During an inspection, the home inspector also tries to fulfill the goal of educating the potential buyer about the property and its inner workings. However, there is certainly the possibility that an inspection could reveal some potential issues of importance that could be overlooked by your average buyer touring a property.
Getting a pre-listing home inspection can help you avoid any nasty surprises on whether or not your house meets local requirements once you’ve already got an offer on the table.
Examples of Requirements
In order to better understand what an appraiser could be looking for when establishing a property’s compliance with minimum condition requirements, it’s best to look at some examples.
On a basic level, making sure there aren’t any serious cracks or buckling of a home’s foundation helps to avoid possibly life-threatening catastrophes. Searching electrical boxes for any exposed or frayed wiring poses another serious safety issue.
An appraiser could also request a soil test in the event they find evidence of possible soil contamination by gasoline, oil, or other caustic materials.
Every home must have at least one sink, toilet, and bathtub or shower. Finally, the appraiser flagd any violations of state and county codes in order to have them resolved and the home brought up to code.
Help Understanding Minimum Condition Requirements in Atlanta
If you are thinking of selling your home in Atlanta and need assistance understanding minimum condition requirements, contact us today at (404) 977-5054!