What to fix before you list

What is worth fixing before you list?

Sort the work into two piles. One pile is what a licensed inspector puts in a report: an active leak, wiring that is not in a box, a water heater past the date on its label, water standing against the slab. The other pile is what a buyer registers in the first minute of a showing. Items in the first pile come back as a repair request after the inspection period, so handling them on your own schedule with your own contractor is the cheaper version of the same repair.

Leave the renovation alone. A kitchen torn out six weeks before listing turns into a permit, an inspection queue, and a calendar nobody in your house controls. If a room cannot be shown the way it stands, talk to a listing agent about handling it through price and disclosure instead of starting work you cannot finish.

Do you need to close out an old permit?

If a permit was pulled on your house and never finalized, it can usually be closed without pulling a new one. Florida law lets the original contractor, a different licensed contractor, or the owner acting as owner-builder close a permit, and an expired permit whose requirements the local enforcement agency finds substantially complete may be closed without obtaining a new building permit.

The same section lets a local enforcement agency close a building permit six years after it was issued, even with no final inspection, when the agency determines that no apparent safety hazards exist. That call belongs to the agency, not to you, so start by pulling the record and reading what it says.

Orange County publishes permit status through Fast Track, searchable by address, parcel number, or file number. Seminole County's building division searches by application number, address, parcel number, or owner name and holds permitting documentation back to late 1984. Print what comes up. A buyer's agent runs the same search.

Should you replace the roof first?

Usually not, but find out how old it is and how an insurer reads it before a buyer does. Roof age drives whether a buyer can bind a policy, and a buyer who cannot bind a policy cannot close a financed purchase.

Citizens Property Insurance requires a four-point inspection on personal residential applications for properties more than 20 years old, covering the roof, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. A shingle roof older than 25 years, or a tile, slate, clay, concrete, or metal roof older than 50 years, needs documentation of at least five years of remaining useful life, and proof of a full roof replacement when the inspector finds less than that.

Partial roof work has a rule of its own. When 25 percent or more of an existing roofing system is repaired, replaced, or recovered, and the roof was built or modified to the 2007 Florida Building Code or a later edition, only the repaired, replaced, or recovered portion has to be constructed to the current code.

If storm protection was ever added, find the uniform mitigation verification form. Every insurer has to accept that standard form, and the person who signs it has to have inspected the structure personally.

What small code items catch sellers out?

Smoke alarms and pool barriers are the two that surface on a Central Florida walkthrough. A battery-powered smoke alarm that you install new, or install to replace an existing one, has to use a nonremovable, nonreplaceable battery rated for at least ten years. Centrally monitored devices, low-power radio frequency devices, and listed multisensor alarms sit outside that requirement.

A residential pool permitted under the Residential Swimming Pool Safety Act had to carry at least one listed safety feature to pass final inspection: an isolating barrier, an approved safety pool cover, exit alarms on the doors and windows with direct pool access, self-closing and self-latching devices on those doors, or a pool alarm meeting ASTM F2208. If a feature came off over the years, put it back before showings start.

Does fixing something mean you do not have to disclose it?

No. Under Florida case law, a seller who knows of facts materially affecting the value of the property which are not readily observable and are not known to the buyer has a duty to disclose them. Repairing a problem does not erase your knowledge of it, and Florida does not prescribe a particular seller disclosure form by statute, so the duty travels with you rather than with a piece of paper.

Specific notices sit alongside that duty and attach to the contract date. A seller of residential real property completes a flood disclosure at or before the time the sales contract is executed, covering flooding damage during ownership, prior flood insurance claims, and flood assistance received. The radon notification has to appear on at least one document, form, or application executed at or before the contract.

For a home built before 1978, federal rules add the lead-based paint steps: give the buyer the EPA pamphlet, disclose known lead-based paint and hazards, hand over any reports you hold, attach the lead warning statement to the contract, and allow a 10-day period for a paint inspection or risk assessment. Keep the signed copies for three years after the sale closes.