If you've ever sold a home, chances are good that you thought about doing it yourself. For Sale By Owner (FSBO) lures in home sellers with promises of paying no commission and not dealing with an agent, but it also comes with important disadvantages. In fact, a study from 2017 found that homes sold without an agent do so at a significantly lower price on average, meaning that these owners ended up avoiding a commission at any cost (even if it meant losing money)!

The home inspection is a valuable tool designed to discover defects with the house being sold before the buyer completes the sale. While most people already understand the importance of the inspection, they might not know what to expect to see once they open up the report. I recently wrote about some of the surprising issues that a home inspector might not be able to report on, but what about the opposite? Keep reading to learn about the most common defects found during a home inspection and how much it costs to fix them.

It had been more than a decade since U.S. home sellers netted a greater profit than they did in 2018, according to ATTOM Data Solutions' Year-End U.S. Home Sales Report. The average home sale last year gained a massive $61,000 since purchase, good for a 32.6% return on investment; both of those amounts were the largest since 2006. That year, homes sold for a net gain of $68,000, or 43.3% ROI, on average. By comparison, 2017's home sellers saw profits of only $50,000 (27% ROI).