Final Walkthrough Checklist: What to Check Before Closing

Get help planning your purchase and your final walkthrough.

You are within days of wiring tens of thousands of dollars to a closing table, and the final walkthrough is the last look at the house before you do it. This is the moment to catch what the seller, the contractors, and the moving trucks may have changed since the inspection.

What the final walkthrough is

The final walk-through is a brief inspection of the property by the buyer just hours or days before closing to verify the home is in the agreed-upon condition and any negotiated repairs were completed. Your contract should allow access, so bring your inspection report and the repair list and check each item. ^[1] Texas Real Estate Commission.

It is not a second home inspection, and it is not a re-run of the full report. It is a condition check: did the seller do what they agreed to do, and is the house still the house you agreed to buy?

The walkthrough checklist, room by room

Walk the house room by room: run every faucet and flush every toilet, test lights, outlets, and GFCI circuits, open and close windows and doors, check the HVAC with a quick heating or cooling run, and confirm the refrigerator, dishwasher, and other included appliances are present and working. ^[2] Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Then do the parts people forget: verify the negotiated repairs were actually completed, look for new damage since the inspection, confirm everything that comes with the sale, the appliances, the fixtures, the remotes, the keys, is there, and make sure the utilities are still on. Check that the seller removed their personal property and nothing that should stay has quietly left.

The money angle: you are about to fund this house

The walkthrough matters because of what happens next: your loan funds, the title company disburses the money, and the keys change hands. Once that happens, a missing appliance or a broken window is your problem, not the seller's.

Think of the walkthrough as the last quality check before you pay for the house. Thirty minutes on site is a small investment of time compared with the years of after-closing headaches it can prevent.

What to do when something is wrong

If something is broken or missing, raise it with your agent before signing. ^[3] Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Document it with photos and names, and tell your agent the second you find it. The options are real: the seller fixes it before closing, you hold up closing until the work is done, or the parties agree to an escrow holdback or a repair credit.

The crucial part is the timing. You raise the issue before you sign, not after. A repair credit negotiated at the walkthrough is enforceable; a handshake over a missing appliance after closing is a headache.

The Texas reality: the walkthrough is your last leverage

In a Texas purchase, the inspection leverage mostly lives in the option period, but the walkthrough is the buyer's last leverage point before the closing table. The seller wants to close, the title company has a calendar, and you are the one signing the final documents.

Use that. A house that is not in the agreed-upon condition is not a house you have to close on without a conversation. The walkthrough is how you make sure the condition you agreed to is the condition you fund.

Patrick's advice: bring the repair list and check every line

Bring the repair list from the inspection and check every line. Not most of the lines, every line. Repairs that were supposed to be done are the single most common walkthrough finding, because a busy seller or a rushed contractor will skip one and assume no one notices.

Take your time, take your photos, and if something does not match the contract, say so before you sign. Once you fund, the house is yours, warts and all. The walkthrough is the last free look you get.