Colorado Home Inspections: Yearly Calendar and Pre-Listing

A Colorado home needs eight inspections on a yearly calendar: the roof after every hail storm and again in October, the furnace or boiler before November, the AC or heat pump in April, the chimney before the first fire, the irrigation backflow at spring startup, the water heater flush in the fall, a foundation and grading walk after the spring thaw and after the July monsoon, and a sewer scope every three years on a home built before 1975, plus a radon retest every two years. The whole calendar costs $800 to $1,500 a year in the Denver metro, against the $6,000 furnace, $12,000 sewer line and $18,000 roof it prevents.

For a seller, the same list collapses into one event: a pre-listing inspection 30 to 45 days before the sign goes up, at $350 to $600 for the general inspection plus the sewer scope and radon test. This guide gives the yearly calendar with who does each item and what it costs, then makes the case for the pre-listing inspection with the Colorado disclosure rule that comes with it. The month-by-month chores (sprinkler blowout, filters, gutters, ice dams) live in the group's Colorado home maintenance calendar; this post covers the inspections.

The Colorado yearly inspection calendar

Why each one is on the list

• Roof. Colorado hail season runs May through September, and the Front Range sits in the hail belt. A roofer's storm inspection finds bruised shingles before the leak, and a claim filed inside the policy's deadline replaces the roof; a leak found two winters later is the owner's bill. The Colorado hail and roof cost guide has the numbers by shingle class.
• Furnace. Gas furnaces derate at 5,280 feet and work harder than their label. The October service catches a cracked heat exchanger, the one finding that red-tags the unit, and a $150 service on a 12-year-old furnace buys 5 more winters.
• Chimney. Wood-burning fireplaces in Denver's older neighborhoods and the mountain communities build creosote; the annual Level 1 inspection is the national standard and the sweep happens when the buildup is more than an eighth of an inch.
• Backflow and irrigation. Colorado's drinking-water rules require the backflow assembly on an irrigation system tied to the tap, many Front Range providers require the annual test, and the October blowout is what keeps the lines from splitting at the first hard freeze.
• Foundation and grading. Bentonite clay swells when wet and shrinks when dry. The spring and late-summer walk checks for new cracks, heaved concrete, sunken grading and downspouts that dump at the corner, and a $300 regrade beats a $20,000 pier job.
• Sewer scope. Clay tile laterals in pre-1975 Denver, Lakewood, Arvada, Englewood, Littleton, Aurora and Boulder homes take roots every year. A $150 scope and a $300 root cut each spring hold off the $8,000 to $20,000 replacement for a decade.
• Radon. The Front Range is EPA Zone 1. Levels change with a remodel, a new furnace or a sealed basement, and mitigation fans fail after 10 years without a sound.

The pre-listing inspection: what it is and what it costs

A pre-listing inspection is the same inspection the buyer will order, done for the seller 30 to 45 days before listing. In the Denver metro the general inspection runs $350 to $600 for a 2,000 square foot home, the sewer scope $150 to $300, and the radon test $150 to $250. The report lands in the seller's hands with 100 to 300 photographs, and the seller does three things with it: fixes the items that would end up in an inspection objection, prices the items that are cheaper to credit than to fix, and puts the report and the repair receipts in the listing folder for every buyer to read.

The math favors the seller on every Front Range home older than 15 years. A buyer's inspection objection prices each repair at the top of a contractor's range plus a cushion for the unknown, and it arrives 10 days into the contract when the seller has already packed. The seller's own repair happens at the seller's quote, on the seller's schedule, before the home is under contract. On a home with a $2,500 furnace repair, a $1,200 sewer root cut and a $400 electrical fix, the seller who does the work spends $4,100; the seller who waits for the objection credits $6,000 to $8,000 or loses the buyer and relists with a stigma on the MLS days-on-market count.

The Colorado disclosure rule that comes with it

A Colorado seller discloses known adverse material facts, and the Seller's Property Disclosure asks about every system in the house. What the pre-listing inspection finds, the seller now knows, and it goes on the form or gets fixed. That is the trade, and it is the right one: the buyer's inspector finds the same items in the same week, and an item the seller knew about and left off the form is the one that comes back after closing. A disclosed and repaired item, with a receipt, is closed. The guide to inspection expectations for Denver sellers shows how buyers read a listing folder with the report in it against one without.

What the buyer's inspector checks anyway

The pre-listing report does not replace the buyer's inspection; it predicts it. The buyer's inspector still walks the roof, runs every system, scopes the sewer and tests for radon, and still checks the eight systems in the group's guide to hidden home systems Colorado buyers check before closing. The difference is what the second report contains: nothing the seller has not already fixed, disclosed or priced. The findings that end Denver sales are a short list, and each one is in the seller's control before listing:

• Roof with hail damage or under 3 years of life left. Claim it or replace it; the Colorado roof report lists what the buyer's roofer looks for.
• Sewer lateral with a belly, a break or a root mass.
• Furnace with a cracked heat exchanger or over 20 years old.
• Electrical panel by Federal Pacific or Zinsco.
• Foundation movement with no engineer's letter.
• Water intrusion in the basement with no fixed cause.
• Radon over 4 picocuries per liter with no mitigation system.
• Unpermitted basement or addition.

The Denver inspection red flags guide gives the fix and the cost for each one.

The yearly budget and the pre-listing project list

Owners who run the calendar spend $1,500 to $3,000 a year on inspections and upkeep for a Denver metro home, and the inspection line is $800 to $1,500 of that. Every receipt goes in one folder; at listing time that folder is the proof that the home was kept, and appraisers, inspectors and buyers all read it. The adding value before selling guide takes the pre-listing report and sorts the findings into three lists: fix before listing, credit at closing, and leave alone because the market does not pay for it. The Smart Pricing Report then prices the home with the repairs done, which is a different number than the home with the repairs pending.

Where to go next

• How to sell a house in Colorado, step by step
• How the Kenna Real Estate Group helps sellers
• The month-by-month Colorado home maintenance calendar
• Year-round maintenance for Colorado homeowners
• Search every home for sale in Colorado
• Meet the Kenna Real Estate Group agents

Talk to the Kenna Real Estate Group

The Kenna Real Estate Group, Keller Williams DTC, books the pre-listing inspection, the sewer scope and the radon test for every seller, sorts the findings into fix, credit and leave alone, and keeps a vetted list of Front Range roofers, HVAC technicians, plumbers and electricians for the work. Call or text 303-955-4220. A live person answers. Not a robot, not a phone tree. When the next home is the question, search every home for sale in Colorado.