You’re getting the house ready to list this spring. Somewhere on the to-do list is the sale report, and you know the wiring is old. What you don’t know is what the evaluator will write about it, or how a buyer will read it.
At Northloom Minneapolis Knob and Tube, we fix sale-report electrical items and replace knob and tube in Minneapolis and St. Paul. This seasonal note is for sellers who want the wiring questions answered before the report is written, not after.
A few weeks of planning before the evaluator arrives can change what your report says, and how buyers react to it.
What will the evaluator write about my wiring?
Mostly the things they can see from a room or a basement. These are the electrical items that turn up most often, and what we usually do about each one.
| Item | What we usually do |
|---|---|
| Ungrounded three-prong outlets | Add labeled GFCI protection, or run a new grounded circuit |
| No ground-fault protection near water | Install GFCI receptacles or breakers |
| Open junction boxes or exposed splices | Put covers on, or move the splice into a box |
| Missing smoke alarms | Install hard-wired alarms under permit where required |
| Visible knob and tube | Trace it first; the scope depends on what is live |
The wording matters. St. Paul’s sample report rates ungrounded three-prong outlets in a kitchen as hazardous, and that’s the kind of rating buyers notice first.
How do the reports differ between cities?
Each city runs its own program, and they don’t ask the same thing of you.
- St. Paul
- A Truth-in-Sale of Housing report by a City-licensed private evaluator, available to buyers within three calendar days of listing and valid for one sale within 365 days. It’s disclosure; the only required repair is a hard-wired smoke alarm in a single-family home.
- Minneapolis
- The city’s own sale evaluation. What it reports and requires, we confirm with the evaluator for your house.
- Richfield
- A point-of-sale inspection, with required repairs re-inspected before closing or taken on by the buyer under an escrow agreement.
When should I start?
A couple of months before you list. That leaves room for permits and inspections if the tracing turns up more than small items.
- A couple of months out: we trace your circuits and give you a written record.
- We decide together what to fix: small items, urgent conditions, and whether partial replacement makes sense.
- We get the permits in place, do the work and schedule the inspections.
- Before the evaluator comes: covers on, alarms working, access clear.
- At listing: you have the record ready for buyers’ agents.
Why trace the circuits if I’m selling anyway?
Because the report can say knob and tube is visible, but it can’t say how much of it is live. That’s the question a buyer’s insurer will ask. With a traced record, you can answer it directly instead of letting the insurer assume the worst. The selling guide compares replacing, documenting and pricing it in.
Which small fixes are worth doing first?
The contained ones that come off the report entirely if they’re done before the evaluator arrives:
- Missing covers on outlets and junction boxes
- Exposed splices moved into boxes
- Ungrounded three-prong outlets given GFCI protection and the required labels
- Oversized fuses replaced with the correct size
- Hard-wired smoke alarms installed under permit where required
None of them settles how much original wiring is live. They do change how your report reads, and buyers read the hazardous ratings first.
What will the buyer’s insurer ask?
Buyers increasingly get insurance quotes during the inspection contingency. A sale report that mentions knob and tube, or rates an electrical item as hazardous, can prompt the insurer’s question before a policy is written. If you have a traced record, you answer it on the spot. If you don’t, the buyer’s agent may ask for an electrician’s evaluation during the contingency, on a much shorter timeline than you’d have had before listing.
Should I replace the knob and tube before I list?
Sometimes. When tracing shows only a few original circuits are still live, a partial replacement before listing, under permit with a written boundary, takes away the most common buyer question. Our typical range for partial replacement is $3,000 to $10,000, about $750 to $2,500 a circuit, and you leave the house with a cleaner report. When most of the house is still original, documenting it and pricing it into the sale often makes more sense, and we’ll tell you which way your house points.
I own a duplex or a condo. Does this apply to me?
In St. Paul, yes. The program covers duplexes, condos, townhouses and co-ops as well as single-family homes. For a duplex, we trace and fix unit by unit and organize the record the same way, because a buyer planning to rent will need it for a landlord policy.
What if the report already came back?
Send us the electrical page. We’ll give you each item’s cause, the fix and whether it needs a permit. The TISH guide explains how items are rated. Questions about your house: (612) 509-6597.