The Final Walkthrough: What to Check Before Closing

The final walkthrough is the most underrated half hour in a home purchase.

By the time you get to it, you are exhausted, the movers are booked, and everyone just wants to sign. That is exactly why people rush it, and exactly why problems get discovered the day after closing instead of the day before.

Here is what the walkthrough is for, what to actually check, and what to do if something is wrong.

What it is, and what it is not

The walkthrough is your confirmation that the home is in the condition you agreed to buy it in. That is the entire purpose.

It is not a second inspection. You are not looking for new issues in the walls or evaluating the furnace's remaining life. That was the inspection's job, covered in what an Indiana home inspection covers.

You are answering four questions. Is the house in the same shape it was when I agreed to buy it. Were the repairs we negotiated actually done. Is everything that was supposed to stay still here. Did anything break during the move.

Timing matters more than people think

Schedule it as close to closing as you reasonably can, and after the sellers are out if at all possible.

A walkthrough with furniture still in place hides things. Rugs cover floor damage. A sofa covers a hole in the drywall. A full closet hides a stain from a roof leak. An empty house tells the truth.

Moving out is also when a lot of damage happens. Scraped walls, gouged floors, a bent garage door track, a broken railing. None of that existed when you toured, and it is fair to expect the home not to be damaged in the process of the seller leaving.

Test things, do not look at them

This is the single most useful piece of advice I can give you. Walking through and glancing at rooms accomplishes very little. Operate everything.

Run water at every sink, tub, and shower. Check hot and cold. Look underneath for drips while the water is running.

Flush every toilet. Run the garbage disposal. Run the dishwasher for a moment.

Turn on the heat and then the air conditioning, whichever the season allows, and confirm each one responds. If it is deep winter, at minimum confirm the furnace fires.

Flip every light switch. Open and close every door, including closets. Open and close the garage door with the opener and check that the safety sensors stop it.

Open and close a sample of windows, especially any that were noted in the inspection. Check that locks work.

Plug a phone charger into a few outlets, particularly in the kitchen and bathrooms, and test that the ground fault outlets trip and reset.

Confirm the repairs actually happened

If the seller agreed to fix things after your inspection, bring that list and verify each one. Not "it looks fine." Verify.

Where a licensed contractor was supposed to do the work, ask for the receipt or invoice. A promise that a plumber came is not the same as evidence that a plumber came, and if there is a warranty on the work you want the paperwork to claim it later.

I cover the negotiation that leads to this list from the other side in negotiating repair requests, and knowing how sellers think about it helps you understand what to expect.

Check that what was included is still there

Pull up the listing and the purchase agreement and confirm the items that were supposed to convey are present.

Appliances are the obvious ones. Also check for the things people forget: window treatments and hardware, light fixtures, ceiling fans, mounted televisions and their brackets, shelving, water softeners, garage door openers and remotes, mailbox keys, and any yard equipment that was part of the deal.

Swapping a nice light fixture for a builder-grade one before moving out is a small thing that happens more than you would guess. If the chandelier in the photos is not the chandelier on the ceiling, say so now.

Look at the parts you never look at

Go into the basement or crawlspace access and look for water, especially if it has rained recently. Check the attic hatch area. Walk the yard and look at the roofline, the gutters, and any exterior damage.

Check that the home is empty. Sellers occasionally leave belongings behind, and old paint cans, a broken freezer, or a pile of scrap in the garage becomes your disposal problem the moment you close.

Confirm utilities are still on. If they were shut off early, you cannot test anything, and that alone is a reason to pause.

If something is wrong

Tell your agent immediately, before you sign anything. This is the part that matters most.

Before closing, you have real options. The closing can be delayed until the issue is resolved. Funds can be held in escrow to cover the repair. A credit can be negotiated at the table. The seller can fix it.

After you sign, essentially all of that is gone. You own the house and the problem. The gap between those two situations is a few hours, and it is enormous.

Take photos of anything you find, with timestamps. Then let your agent handle the conversation. Nobody wants to blow up a closing over a scraped wall, and most issues get resolved quickly when they are raised properly and early.

Special cases worth planning for

New construction walkthroughs work differently. With a builder you are typically creating a punch list of items to be finished or corrected, and there is usually a defined warranty period afterward. Be thorough anyway, because getting a builder back after closing is harder than getting them to finish before it. The broader comparison is in new construction versus existing homes.

If the seller is staying past closing under a rent-back agreement, your walkthrough happens with them still in the house, which limits what you can see. Make sure the agreement spells out the condition the home will be in when they leave and what happens if it is not.

On a vacant home that has sat empty through winter, pay extra attention to plumbing. Pipes that were not properly winterized cause problems that only show up when the water is turned back on.

And if you bought a rural property, confirm the well and septic are functioning at the walkthrough too. Running water and flushing toilets tells you more than a glance at the yard.

The mindset to bring

Slow down. You are about to make one of the largest purchases of your life, and this is the last checkpoint before it is final. Thirty focused minutes is a fair price for that.

Bring your phone, the inspection report, the repair list, and a bit of patience. Go room by room. Do not let anyone rush you, including yourself.

Then go sign, and enjoy it. The whole path from offer to keys is laid out in my complete guide to buying a home in Lafayette, and if you want someone in your corner for all of it, grab a time on my calendar. A real person reads every message. Let's get you home.