Home Inspections for Home Buyers
Inspect The Inspector
Know who you are hiring. Make sure your inspector is certified and knowledgeable. Never be afraid to ask questions. If you don’t ask, you won’t know.
Protect Your Investment
You are about to spend a lot of money on your new home. Spend that extra little bit to make sure your investment is safe, sound and secure.
What Really Matters
The process of buying a home can be very stressful. A home inspection is supposed to give you peace of mind, but often has the opposite effect. You will be asked to absorb a lot of information in a short time. This often includes a written report, checklist, photographs, environmental reports, and what the inspector himself says during the inspection. All this combined with the sellers disclosure and what you notice yourself makes the experience even more overwhelming. What should you do?
Relax. Most of the inspection will be maintenance recommendations, life expectancy and minor imperfections. These are nice to know about. However, the issues that really matter will fall into four categories:
- Major defects. An example of this would be structural failure.
- Things that lead to major defects. A small roof-flashing leak for example.
- Things that may hinder your ability to finance, legally occupy or insure the home.
- Safety hazards, such as an exposed, live buss bar at the electric panel.
Anything in these categories should be addressed. Often a serious problem can be corrected inexpensively to protect both life and property (especially in categories 2 and 4).
Most sellers are honest and are often surprised to learn of defects uncovered during an inspection. Realize that sellers are not under obligation to repair everything mentioned in the report. No home is perfect. Keep things in perspective. Don’t kill your deal over things that don’t matter. It is inappropriate to demand that a seller address deferred maintenance, conditions already listed on the seller’s disclosure, or nit-picky items.