diff --git a/src/util/virxml.c b/src/util/virxml.c
index 060b7530fc..4a6fe09468 100644
--- a/src/util/virxml.c
+++ b/src/util/virxml.c
@@ -536,7 +536,7 @@ virXMLPropStringLimit(xmlNodePtr node,
 char *
 virXMLNodeContentString(xmlNodePtr node)
 {
-    char *ret = (char *)xmlNodeGetContent(node);
+    char *ret = NULL;
 
     if (node->type !=  XML_ELEMENT_NODE) {
         virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
@@ -545,6 +545,8 @@ virXMLNodeContentString(xmlNodePtr node)
         return NULL;
     }
 
+    ret = (char *)xmlNodeGetContent(node);
+
     if (!ret) {
         virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
                        _("node '%s' has unexpected NULL content. This could be caused by malformed input, or a memory allocation failure"),