THINKING ABOUT SELLING YOUR BUILDING? A BAD ROOF IS A BAD SIGN
When selling your building, most buyers are going to want to perform an inspection on the building themselves, in addition to the inspection that is required by the bank in many cases. When they climb up on your roof, the last thing you want them to see is a neglected roof that hasn’t been cared for or maintained for the last 15 years. There are a few reasons why a poor roof can hurt your selling price. Let’s see why a bad roof can stall the sale of your building.
A Bad Roof is a Problem Itself
If your roof is in bad enough shape that it is leaking, sagging, or is covered in ponding water, each of those provide tangible problems to the building. The roof isn’t just an eye sore, it’s actually causing problems inside the building – or will be soon.
If a potential buyer gets up on your roof and sees that it’s falling apart, they’ll probably ask you to fix the roof (which can get expensive) before they buy, ask you to lower the price so they can fix the roof once they buy, or just call the deal off all together. None of those is a great option.
A Bad Roof is a Sign of Bad Care Elsewhere
A bad roof is also an indication that other areas of the building may have been neglected over the years. If the roof is falling apart and your last inspection on file was 8 years ago, the buyer may have second thoughts about how you’ve maintained the HVAC system, changed air filters, etc. This could be enough to scare them out of the deal because now there is major uncertainty concerning how you’ve taken care of the rest of the building.
You could be a great property manager and everything other than the roof could be perfectly up to date, serviced when recommended, and running properly, but they now have a fear and a doubt in their mind that can either hurt your selling price or call the deal off completely.
Conclusion
If you think you might sell the building in the future, which is very likely, then you should be maintaining your roof. Not to deceive any buyers that it looks good, but to actually take care of the roof and make sure you can get the full selling price out of your building when you do decide to move on.
