One of an agent's biggest hurdles in a sale is the due-diligence period — and the crawl space is where surprises hide. Looking at it before a buyer is in the picture gives everyone a real read on the home and a sane plan to fix what's there.

In my years working in crawl spaces and residential property services, I've come to understand the difficulties agents go through. One of an agent's biggest hurdles during a sale is the due-diligence period — the stretch where a deal can go south in a dozen ways, and probably the most stressful time for everybody involved.

Listing and selling a home is more stressful than most people think, for both the seller and the agent. A lot falls on the realtor's shoulders to keep everything on track and get the seller the price they're after. Let me walk you through the listing experience for a Raleigh, NC agent — and where JAGS fits in.

The listing process, start to finish

For the listing agent, it starts with meeting the homeowner to talk through the terms of listing the home. Agreements are made, paperwork is filled out — the easy part for both parties. Then the agent takes (or arranges) photos that show the home at its most flattering, and the listing goes live for buyers to view.

Realtors have an amazing eye for property. They can spot the potential flaws and most of the things that will get flagged on a home inspection — the little signs of wear and tear, the internal and external factors that tend to get called out. Most experienced agents know how these items get corrected, but they still have to go through the proper channels and procedures. This is where JAGS can step in — but we'll get to that in a minute.

Now the fun part: the showings. Streams of people move through the home, picturing their belongings in the rooms and imagining their lives there. Then it happens — a buyer makes an offer, it's accepted, and the home goes under contract.

Due diligence: where the trouble usually starts

Next comes the due-diligence period, when the home's history and the home itself get examined. More often than not, this is when the most issues arise for agents and sellers alike. There could be liens on the property, back taxes owed, easements nobody knew about — and almost always, an inspection of the home itself.

When a home inspection is done, they typically call in an NC state-certified home inspector to look at every inch of the home. A standard general home inspection usually covers:

Structural and exterior elements

Interior systems and appliances

(Specialized checks like radon, termites, or septic/sewer scopes are generally separate services, not part of a standard general home inspection.) All of these points matter to a buyer and should never be skipped.

Once the inspection report comes in and the buyer and their agent see where the deficiencies are, they bring in professionals in those fields to quote the repairs — often with overinflated estimates — and tally up what the work would cost. The buyer usually submits a counteroffer to offset those costs. And that's where the problems start: negotiations.

It can go back and forth for a while. Sometimes an offer is accepted; other times the seller counters the buyer's counter. Often they settle somewhere in the middle — but sometimes the whole deal falls apart, leaving the seller, the buyer, and the agents back at square one, all a little worse for wear and unhappy with the process.

Where JAGS Consultants comes in

This is exactly where JAGS could have limited the discrepancies that blew up the negotiation. When an agent lists a home and notices there could be issues in the crawl space or around the property, they can suggest the homeowner call JAGS Consultants.

We provide an independent assessment covering all of the following, so problems get understood before a buyer is ever in the equation:

Looking at these items ahead of time lets us prepare the homeowner and lay out real options and avenues to correct problems — without having to haggle against those outrageous company quotes.

It helps buyers, too

We can also help the buyer. People fall in love with these homes, and hearing bad news from an inspection report can be crushing. Home inspectors do a fantastic job finding the issues in a home, but what they often don't provide is a reasonable course of correction — they don't tell you how to fix it. That gets left to the "professionals," who tend to come back with an overinflated quote and a throw-everything-at-the-wall mentality. That doesn't give a buyer a real idea of what's going on, and a dream home can quickly turn into a "nightmare house."

It doesn't have to go that way. If a buyer gets a less-than-positive home inspection, they can call JAGS. We'll give them a real view of the issues. Maybe they aren't nearly as bad as they were quoted. Maybe the corrections can be spread out over time. Maybe there are small fixes they can do themselves that make a big difference in how the home performs without spending a lot of money. And sometimes I have to give the honest confirmation that a home has more issues than they'd hoped — but I'll always provide a corrective course of action that actually makes sense.

JAGS Consultants understands the obstacles of selling and buying a home, and the stress felt by everyone involved. If we can make the experience a little nicer, go a little smoother, and save everybody some time, money, and sanity — then we've done our job.