One of the biggest benefits of a real estate roof certification is that there are no mysteries, whether you’re in a buying or selling position. It puts the entire deal right there on the table so that there aren’t any surprises to kill your deal at the very end.
Most lenders require a five-year certification on the roof they are lending on. If you’re the seller, you might get it past the buyer and their realtor, but inspections could kill the deal when the bank finds out your roof isn’t certified.
People call me and say, “my house can’t close until I have this certification.” Knowing the health of your roof, how long it will last, and having a guarantee that it won’t leak for five years is a big deal to the people funding it.
If you’re buying a home, always do a roof certification. It can save you hundreds, thousands, or in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I shared a couple of months ago about a client we have in Hubbard. It’s a historical town and everyone is buying homes and restoring them to their original state. Well, this guy found this amazing property with a cedar shingle roof. It looked incredible from the ground.
He bought it for well over a million dollars and called us for maintenance. It turns out that all the shingles on this roof were overdriven. Shingles were coming out of place and sliding down the roof. After we inspected, we had to tell him that in the next few big storms, his roof was going to be in his neighbor’s yard. It needed to be replaced and was going to cost him big time.
If that buyer had gotten a real estate roof certification, we would have found those issues before he purchased the home. He could have walked away from the deal, negotiated a brand new roof on his property, or gotten a deduction on the purchase. A real estate roof certification is a win-win for the buyer.
There are other cases where you have a home that’s 15 years old and the roof has normal wear and tear. If you’re the seller, it may cost you $500-2,500 to get it repaired and certified, but then you can put it on the market with peace of mind. You’ll have the price of your home set, and your deal can move smoothly.
You don’t want your deal to fall through because you don’t have your ducks in a row. Call Roof Life of Oregon at (503) 461-2665, as a buyer or as a seller, and schedule your real estate roof certification.