Most of what reopens a price on day eight is already in the public record on day zero — the roof's age, the furnace older than the last sale, the finished basement nobody pulled a permit for.
An inspection lands and the price gets renegotiated. Most of what reopens it — a roof at the end of its life, mechanicals older than the last sale, a finished basement with no permit behind it — was sitting in the public record before the listing went live.
A general inspector covers everything shallowly in one visit and cannot know what the record says. Arrive with specific questions instead: this roof, this furnace, this addition.
Learn what the inspection will surface before you go to market, and decide deliberately whether to fix it or price it. A known issue priced on day zero is not a concession on day eight.
Minnesota sellers must disclose the material facts they are aware of. The record is public, so the buyer’s side can pull the same history — which makes the real choice not whether to know, but whether to know first or be surprised by it.
Whether this specific address sat under a damaging hail event, and whether a roofing permit followed it. Dated, per parcel, not a county-wide advisory.
"No permit found" is worthless unless you also know whether the record covers that year and that trade. Minneapolis permits reach back decades, but its roofing record becomes dense in 2015 and its water-heater record in 2016. We publish the floor for the specific city and the specific trade, so an absence can be read honestly instead of as an accusation.
What each city's record contains, how far back it reaches, and per trade.
Permit records →The question that moves the most money in an inspection, answered from the record.
Roof age →What a missing permit does and does not prove, stated plainly.
Unpermitted work →Minneapolis and Saint Paul evaluations, and what evaluators actually flag.
Evaluations →Worked examples on real parcels — including one where the record is wrong by omission.
Worked examples →Agents rarely buy tools like this directly — title companies and lenders do, and give them to the agents whose referrals they want. If that is you, being early is the whole offer: the pages an agent would hand a client are still being shaped, and founding partners get terms we will not be able to repeat later.