What not to repair before getting a written opinion

About this video. The person on screen is an AI-generated avatar in my likeness. The voice is mine, cloned from recordings of my own voice, and the editing adjusts the sound. The image and the voice may therefore differ from my real appearance and delivery. The text is written and approved by me, and I take full responsibility for it. This process lets me publish regularly; it changes nothing about what is said.

Hello. In a house you’re getting ready to sell, there are things you should definitely not repair right away.

The question, as people ask it: “do I have to fix everything before selling my house”

Have it checked first, decide afterwards

Repairing without knowing what you’re repairing is repairing blind. Here’s the order to follow.

The question of what to repair before selling starts with a question of order. Have it checked first. Decide afterwards.

An owner who repairs before having anything checked decides with the information they have. That is, what they can see. And what you see of a building component is its surface.

A professional who comes to look doesn’t just talk to you. They give you something in writing. That writing becomes a document you keep, that you can show, and that exists independently of your word.

That’s the difference between the two actions. A repair changes the building. A verification produces a document.

A seller who has documents answers questions. A seller who doesn’t tells stories.

The three categories of work before listing

There isn’t one list of work to do before selling. There are three, and they aren’t handled the same way.

There are three categories of things in a house you’re getting ready to sell. Naming them changes the conversation completely.

First category. What gets checked beforehand, by a professional, with a written opinion. Foundation, concrete slab, visible structure, signs of water, roof, attic, electrical panel, plumbing. That’s the subject of this video.

Second category. What gets decided based on scope, once you have the written opinion in hand. Windows, doors, exterior siding, balcony, water heater, ventilation, interior finishes.

Third category. Routine maintenance. No opinion, no decision, no expert. It gets done, and it’s done.

The last two categories are covered in another video. Here, we stay with the first — the one that takes time, and that people tackle last when it should come first.

Cracks: what you don’t touch

Don’t seal a crack before an engineer has seen it. Afterwards, all they see is sealant.

Some items you don’t touch before you have a written opinion. Cracks in the foundation walls and in the concrete slab are among them.

Here’s why. A crack that has been sealed, painted or covered can no longer be read. The structural engineer who comes afterwards no longer sees the direction, the width, or the offset between the two sides. They see sealant.

The buyer will see sealant too. They’ll ask the question. And the answer will be simpler with a written opinion on file.

An unrepaired crack can let water in. That’s all I can say about it. A crack is assessed by a structural engineer; the fix is carried out by a specialized contractor. Two trades, in that order.

So you photograph it, with a coin next to it for scale. You note the date. And you repair afterwards.

Signs of water, efflorescence, mould: don’t erase them

Before repainting your basement wall, know what the paint erases.

Signs of infiltration in the basement, efflorescence and visible mould all follow the same rule. You don’t erase them before having them looked at.

A ring on the concrete. A wave-shaped discoloration at the bottom of a wall. A whitish, powdery deposit that rubs off with a finger. A dark stain behind a piece of furniture pushed against an exterior wall. These are observations. They have a location, a height and a shape.

One coat of paint, and what’s left is a recently painted basement wall. The observation no longer exists in your file.

And it needs to be said clearly. The French drain can’t be seen. It’s buried. What we see are its symptoms.

The person who links a symptom to its cause is an engineer. For a dark stain, it’s mould investigation, another trade, which takes samples and issues a report.

The roof and the attic: you have someone go up

No one can read your roof from a photo. Here’s what actually gets looked at.

The roof is often decided on before anyone from the trade has looked at it. Here’s what can be observed from the ground, and what can’t.

From the ground, with binoculars: lifted, split or missing shingles. Granules — the small gravel that covers the shingles — at the bottom of the gutters or at the foot of the downspouts.

From the attic hatch, without going in, with a flashlight: dark stains on the wood of the roof underside. Frost or droplets on the nails in winter. You don’t walk around in an attic.

Two different trades. The shingles and the stains on the wood: that’s a roofer. The frost and the condensation: that’s a ventilation contractor.

I won’t tell you how many years your roof has left. No serious person will tell you that from a photo. Have a roofer go up, ask for their findings in writing, decide afterwards.

Electrical panel and plumbing: the written certificate

Go read what’s written on the door of your electrical panel. Without opening it.

The electrical panel and visible plumbing can be noted by eye, without opening anything and without touching anything.

Is it a panel with round screw-in fuses rather than breakers. What service entrance is indicated: sixty amps, one hundred amps, two hundred amps. What brand is written on the door. And the year of construction matters. Between 1965 and 1978, some houses have outlet and lighting circuits in aluminum. An aluminum service entrance, on the other hand, is normal.

On the plumbing side. A grey, flexible plastic pipe is polybutylene. Don’t scratch it. Note it, photograph it, show the photo to a plumber. Green or white corrosion around a fitting.

Here, you don’t do any DIY. A master electrician who is a member of the CMEQ for the panel. A plumber for the rest. And the certificate in writing, to keep.

You don’t renovate, or cover up, what you haven’t had looked at

Want to finish your basement before selling? There’s one thing to do before putting up the first stud.

The same rule applies to renovations: you don’t renovate what you haven’t had looked at.

Take a basement. You decide to finish it before selling. Drywall on the walls, floating floor, recessed lighting. The result looks great.

But before the work, nobody looked at the concrete. Neither the foundation walls nor the slab. Nobody noted what was there.

So today, two things are true at the same time. The basement is finished. And the only honest answer to the question “what’s behind this wall” is: I don’t know.

I’m not saying there’s something there. I’m saying there’s no longer any way to know without taking it apart.

The order isn’t a preparation detail. It’s what decides what you’ll still be able to know later.

And there’s a follow-up to that, when you fill out your seller’s declarations. What you covered up, you still know about. Drywall doesn’t erase it from your memory, and it doesn’t erase it from your obligations. You declare what you know — including what is no longer visible.

The time each opinion takes

A roofer in October doesn’t have the same availability as in April. That’s what decides your timeline.

Here’s the reason to start early, and it has nothing to do with the work itself.

A professional doesn’t come the next day. You have to call, wait for an appointment, wait for the visit, then wait for the written report. Each step takes days, and sometimes weeks depending on the season.

A roofer in October doesn’t have the same availability as in April. A structural engineer works by appointment. An accredited laboratory works on a collected sample, and the result comes back afterwards.

I won’t give you a precise timeframe, because it changes from one region to another and from one season to another. What I can tell you is that the seller who calls at the same time they put up the sign has already lost their room to manoeuvre.

The concrete step: call to book the appointments before choosing your listing date. Not after.

What you do with the opinion once you have it

A written opinion serves three purposes. The third is answering the inspector before they ask.

You have the written opinion. It serves three purposes, and the third surprises most sellers.

First, it tells you whether there is something to do, and what. That’s the one everyone thinks of.

Second, it feeds your seller’s declarations. You’re no longer declaring a memory: you’re declaring a fact, with a date and the name of the person who observed it.

Third — and this is the one people forget — it answers the buyer’s inspector before they even ask. When a document is already on file, the conversation doesn’t start from scratch.

So you file it. A folder, chronological order, and it stays put.

A written opinion lost in an email you can’t find is an opinion that doesn’t exist when you need it.

Who to call, and for what

I don’t do the inspection. My role is to know where to look and who to call.

• Structural engineer
• Decontamination specialist
• Roofer
• Ventilation contractor
• Master electrician (CMEQ)
• Plumber
• Accredited laboratory

Frequently asked questions

Get a value report for your property, and a marketing plan

Get a value report for your property, and a marketing plan — comparables, features, opinion of value

Full video transcript

Full transcript of the video above, translated from French. Published October 19, 2026.

Hello. In a house you’re getting ready to sell, there are things you should definitely not repair right away.

My name is Ernso Cléus. I’m a residential and commercial real estate broker with RE/MAX Crystal. Before becoming a broker, I earned a diploma in building inspection technology.

It’s not a question of money. It’s a question of order.

I won’t talk about amounts. I won’t tell you what it costs or what it brings in. I’m going to talk to you about sequence, and about the paper trail.

Have it checked first, decide afterwards

The question of what to repair before selling starts with a question of order. Have it checked first. Decide afterwards.

An owner who repairs before having anything checked decides with the information they have. That is, what they can see. And what you see of a building component is its surface.

A professional who comes to look doesn’t just talk to you. They give you something in writing. That writing becomes a document you keep, that you can show, and that exists independently of your word.

That’s the difference between the two actions. A repair changes the building. A verification produces a document.

A seller who has documents answers questions. A seller who doesn’t tells stories.

The three categories

There are three categories of things in a house you’re getting ready to sell. Naming them changes the conversation completely.

First category. What gets checked beforehand, by a professional, with a written opinion. Foundation, concrete slab, visible structure, signs of water, roof, attic, electrical panel, plumbing. That’s the subject of this video.

Second category. What gets decided based on scope, once you have the written opinion in hand. Windows, doors, exterior siding, balcony, water heater, ventilation, interior finishes.

Third category. Routine maintenance. No opinion, no decision, no expert. It gets done, and it’s done.

The last two categories are covered in another video. Here, we stay with the first — the one that takes time, and that people tackle last when it should come first.

Cracks: what you don’t touch

Some items you don’t touch before you have a written opinion. Cracks in the foundation walls and in the concrete slab are among them.

Here’s why. A crack that has been sealed, painted or covered can no longer be read. The structural engineer who comes afterwards no longer sees the direction, the width, or the offset between the two sides. They see sealant.

The buyer will see sealant too. They’ll ask the question. And the answer will be simpler with a written opinion on file.

An unrepaired crack can let water in. That’s all I can say about it. A crack is assessed by a structural engineer; the fix is carried out by a specialized contractor. Two trades, in that order.

So you photograph it, with a coin next to it for scale. You note the date. And you repair afterwards.

Signs of water, efflorescence, mould: don’t erase them

Signs of infiltration in the basement, efflorescence and visible mould all follow the same rule. You don’t erase them before having them looked at.

A ring on the concrete. A wave-shaped discoloration at the bottom of a wall. A whitish, powdery deposit that rubs off with a finger. A dark stain behind a piece of furniture pushed against an exterior wall. These are observations. They have a location, a height and a shape.

One coat of paint, and what’s left is a recently painted basement wall. The observation no longer exists in your file.

And it needs to be said clearly. The French drain can’t be seen. It’s buried. What we see are its symptoms.

The person who links a symptom to its cause is an engineer. For a dark stain, it’s mould investigation, another trade, which takes samples and issues a report.

The roof and the attic: you have someone go up

The roof is often decided on before anyone from the trade has looked at it. Here’s what can be observed from the ground, and what can’t.

From the ground, with binoculars: lifted, split or missing shingles. Granules — the small gravel that covers the shingles — at the bottom of the gutters or at the foot of the downspouts.

From the attic hatch, without going in, with a flashlight: dark stains on the wood of the roof underside. Frost or droplets on the nails in winter. You don’t walk around in an attic.

Two different trades. The shingles and the stains on the wood: that’s a roofer. The frost and the condensation: that’s a ventilation contractor.

I won’t tell you how many years your roof has left. No serious person will tell you that from a photo. Have a roofer go up, ask for their findings in writing, decide afterwards.

Electrical panel and plumbing: the written certificate

The electrical panel and visible plumbing can be noted by eye, without opening anything and without touching anything.

Is it a panel with round screw-in fuses rather than breakers. What service entrance is indicated: sixty amps, one hundred amps, two hundred amps. What brand is written on the door. And the year of construction matters. Between 1965 and 1978, some houses have outlet and lighting circuits in aluminum. An aluminum service entrance, on the other hand, is normal.

On the plumbing side. A grey, flexible plastic pipe is polybutylene. Don’t scratch it. Note it, photograph it, show the photo to a plumber. Green or white corrosion around a fitting.

Here, you don’t do any DIY. A master electrician who is a member of the CMEQ for the panel. A plumber for the rest. And the certificate in writing, to keep.

You don’t renovate, or cover up, what you haven’t had looked at

The same rule applies to renovations: you don’t renovate what you haven’t had looked at.

Take a basement. You decide to finish it before selling. Drywall on the walls, floating floor, recessed lighting. The result looks great.

But before the work, nobody looked at the concrete. Neither the foundation walls nor the slab. Nobody noted what was there.

So today, two things are true at the same time. The basement is finished. And the only honest answer to the question “what’s behind this wall” is: I don’t know.

I’m not saying there’s something there. I’m saying there’s no longer any way to know without taking it apart.

The order isn’t a preparation detail. It’s what decides what you’ll still be able to know later.

And there’s a follow-up to that, when you fill out your seller’s declarations. What you covered up, you still know about. Drywall doesn’t erase it from your memory, and it doesn’t erase it from your obligations. You declare what you know — including what is no longer visible.

The time each opinion takes

Here’s the reason to start early, and it has nothing to do with the work itself.

A professional doesn’t come the next day. You have to call, wait for an appointment, wait for the visit, then wait for the written report. Each step takes days, and sometimes weeks depending on the season.

A roofer in October doesn’t have the same availability as in April. A structural engineer works by appointment. An accredited laboratory works on a collected sample, and the result comes back afterwards.

I won’t give you a precise timeframe, because it changes from one region to another and from one season to another. What I can tell you is that the seller who calls at the same time they put up the sign has already lost their room to manoeuvre.

The concrete step: call to book the appointments before choosing your listing date. Not after.

What you do with the opinion once you have it

You have the written opinion. It serves three purposes, and the third surprises most sellers.

First, it tells you whether there is something to do, and what. That’s the one everyone thinks of.

Second, it feeds your seller’s declarations. You’re no longer declaring a memory: you’re declaring a fact, with a date and the name of the person who observed it.

Third — and this is the one people forget — it answers the buyer’s inspector before they even ask. When a document is already on file, the conversation doesn’t start from scratch.

So you file it. A folder, chronological order, and it stays put.

A written opinion lost in an email you can’t find is an opinion that doesn’t exist when you need it.

You don’t repair for the sake of repairing. You have it checked, you get the opinion in writing, and you decide afterwards.

Six items follow this rule, and for each one, repairing erases information you’ll need later. You don’t cover up concrete you haven’t had looked at.

A seller’s first question is still the value of their property. I produce a value report and a marketing plan. You can request it through the links below the video.

If you’re already bound by a brokerage contract with another broker, this invitation isn’t meant for you.

I don’t pass verdicts on a building, I don’t put a price on work, and I don’t act as an inspector in any transaction.

Ernso Cléus, residential and commercial real estate broker, RE/MAX Crystal. Your broker who knows buildings.

Read also: what small repairs to do before selling your house · what to check before putting your house on the market · all the seller tips · get in touch

Ernso Cléus, residential and commercial real estate broker — RE/MAX Crystal. Your broker who knows buildings.