For Home Sellers

Prepare your home for sale so you can prove to buyers that it is safe and not leaking.

Sellers who don’t do this are risking selling for less.

Selling A Plaster Clad House For More

Successfully Selling A Plaster Clad House Is About Reducing Risk

Selling a plaster clad house can be a difficult and discouraging process.

Real Estate agents may be happy to just put your home up for sale and encourage you to take whatever the market is willing to give. However, you might be surprised at just how much information they are obliged to give your potential buyers. Click here to find out.

Many owners get a nasty shock when rock bottom offers come in, or sales keep falling through. They get despondent. They settle for less.

You think that your house is basically sound, but unfortunately, its value and desirability are affected by the stigma arising from the leaky home saga.

Everyone is most worried about risk – that your house leaks, that it has decay and that it will cost money and lose value.

When you reduce or remove the risk, your house will sell for more

However, there are Four Parties that you need to convince before your sale goes through

The Four Barriers to Selling a Plaster Clad House

The Real Estate Agent, The Buyer, The Inspector and The Bank

Real Estate Agent

Your Real Estate Agent wants to get the best price for you. But they are worried about being sued, or dragged through a disciplinary process for misrepresenting your house or not disclosing defects.

This webpage from the Real Estate Authority details just how thorough your agent must be in alerting potential buyers. If they think there is a chance it could be leaky, they must disclose.

You can reduce the risk to your Agent, and give them freedom to promote your house properly by giving them hard evidence. Timber Treatment Certificates, and actual independent accurate moisture readings show that your house is dry. We provide reports outlining the features of your house that make it more weathertight and durable. These are like gold to Real Estate Agents.

The Buyers

More interested buyers equals a better sale price. However, regardless of how interested they are, they risk being saddled with a leaky rotting home, costing them money, and hard to sell.

Reduce their risk, and attract more buyers! Providing evidence that your house doesn’t leak, is well maintained, and has a Maintenance Plan to ensure that it stays safe and dry without massive expense.

If there are a few issues, it’s better to know them, and disclose them so they are factored into the first offer.

The Pre-Purchase Inspector

Pre-purchase inspectors are regularly sued for not reporting defects that cause loss to the new owner. So they diligently report every possible issue, real or not. They follow visual inspection standards, and have insurance policies with strict rules around what they can and can’t say. For plaster houses, they have a series of template statements saying what might be wrong – although they can’t see it, can’t warranty it and can’t report on it.

They must recommend further invasive weathertightness inspection because they can’t actually see or measure what is happening inside the walls.

You don’t want other inspectors cutting holes in your gib or cladding to look for possible leaks or decay.

Your buyers often walk away because of the new risks that these reports bring up and because you (quite reasonably), don’t want your walls cut open.

Reduce the risk to the pre-purchase inspector by providing

a Timber Treatment Certificate,
an installed invasive testing system (Moisture Monitoring System) with recent moisture results which can be verified with the correct equipment,
and the weathertightness defects repaired.

The Bank

Under the Responsible Lending Code, banks are legally obliged to satisfy themselves that a borrower will be able to make the payments on the loan. They risk breaching the Code if they lend money to buy a house, which then requires substantial repairs (e.g. a re-clad), and the borrower can’t afford to make those repairs. Banks criteria are strict when lending for a plaster clad home. This means that it is harder for your potential buyers to borrow money to buy your house. This may mean that only cash buyers can make you an offer unless the risk is low.

Reduce the risk to the bank, with hard evidence that your house will not require major repairs or recladding for the foreseeable future.

The Essential Steps to Preparing for Selling a Plaster Clad House

Prepare your home for sale by finding and fixing the defects, then providing proof that the house is safe and dry

When selling a plaster clad house, some sellers pay for their own pre-purchase or thermal imaging inspection report, however these reports are largely subjective, based on the inspectors opinion and tools (scanners and thermal imaging) that cannot measure moisture. . They often report issues that aren’t there or don’t report ones that are. This leaves you vulnerable to accepting an unjustified discount, or potential legal action when the new buyer finds the real problems. Buyers and their banks do not rely on vendor provided reports.

Another risk is that if the buyer relies on your report being an accurate report on the house condition, and the house later proves to be leaky, they may be able to sue you for misrepresentation.

Moisture ProbesMoisture Probe System provide actual unarguable accurate moisture readings which a buyer’s inspector can verify.

Selling a plaster clad house after moisture probes and weathertightness repairs

Every house is different, however the usual process for selling a plaster clad house is:

Install the Mdu Moisture Probe System, including analysing the timber treatment and assessing any existing decay. Our patented moisture probe system has been measuring and monitoring for leaks and decay in over two thousand New Zealand homes since 2005.

Moisture monitoring probes are small, discrete devices installed through the skirting boards. A moisture meter can then directly measure the moisture content of the house framing. These are installed in under a day. A full description of our probe system is available here.

Report on the results of the probe installation and any areas which should be repaired/treated or investigated further

Target repairs to manage any the leaks found by the probes

Treat timber that is vulnerable to decay with our unique treat-in-place RotStop system.

Modify or remove high risk features on the house that deter buyers and score black marks from pre-purchase inspectors. For example, high ground lines, missing flashings, unsealed penetrations.

Monitor the moisture probes to ensure that the leaks are repaired and any new leaks identified.

Provide moisture probe readings, weathertightness reports, and maintenance plans to buyers and their inspectors to prove your house is safe.

Phone Us Today On (09) 271 0522

If you don’t prepare your plaster clad home for sale, be prepared for delays and a lower price

Start Preparing For Sale Now!

History is the only real proof of performance

Preparing for selling a plaster clad house for sale takes time. Time to find out if there are any problems, time to fix them, then time to prove that the repairs have worked.

We recommend that you start this at least a year before going to market, but allow up to two years if possible.

However, the longer that your house is monitored for moisture before you sell, the greater the benefits. Imagine if your buyers could see evidence that your house has been dry for the last five, or even ten years.

Prepare for the eventual sale now by installing a moisture monitoring system; to find leaks so they can be fixed, to warn of new leaks before they cause damage, and to collect data to aid the future sale.

If you want to go to market soon or the house is already for sale, and want to prove that your house is safe and dry to potential buyers and inspectors, a Moisture Probe System is the only way to provide that proof.

Phone Us Today On (09) 271 0522 to book in a half an hour phone consultation for free.

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