Final walkthrough
A final walkthrough is the buyer's last inspection before closing, typically within a day or two of it. It exists to confirm that the property is still what was agreed to.
It is not a second home inspection and it is not an opportunity to renegotiate things already accepted. It verifies.
What to actually check#
Agreed repairs. Were they done, and done properly? A receipt is not evidence; look at the work.
Included items. Appliances, light fixtures, window treatments, the shed, the mounted television. Sellers remove things they believed were theirs, sometimes correctly and sometimes not, and the purchase agreement decides which.
Emptiness. The seller's belongings gone, and the debris with them. Disposing of what a seller leaves behind is a real cost and it falls on the buyer after closing.
Systems. Run taps, flush toilets, test the heating and cooling, open and close windows and exterior doors, check the garage door. These take ten minutes collectively and they catch things that broke between inspection and closing.
Damage from moving. Scraped walls, damaged flooring, a broken banister. Move- out damage is common and is not what the buyer inspected.
Timing it properly#
As close to closing as practicable, and after the seller has moved out where possible.
A walkthrough with the seller's furniture still in place hides floors, walls and whatever was sitting in the corner of the basement. It also makes it impossible to tell whether the included items are staying.
If something is wrong#
Raise it before signing. That is the entire point of the timing.
Before closing, the buyer has leverage — the seller needs the transaction to complete. Options include delaying, holding funds in escrow pending resolution, or agreeing a credit.
After closing, the buyer has a claim against someone who has been paid and has no further need of them. The practical difference between those two positions is enormous, and it is measured in hours.
Vacant and distressed property#
The case where a walkthrough matters most.
A property that has been empty between contract and closing can change substantially — pipes freeze, a roof leak progresses, copper is stolen, squatters arrive. Nobody is there to notice, and no seller is going to report it.
On a bank-owned purchase there is often nobody who has been inside the property for weeks. The walkthrough is the buyer's only current information, and skipping it means closing on a house whose condition is genuinely unknown.