Should You Always Get a Home Inspection?

Table of Content

• What is included in a home inspection?
• Fear over losing a buyer to property condition
• Rustic, Refined, and Romantic: Is the French Country House Style Right for You?
• How Much Does It Cost to Build a House in 2023?
• Should I Get a Pre-Listing Home Inspection?
• Why are HUD inspections different from traditional sale inspections?

This is important to know because if HUD lists something that needs to be repaired on the PCR the buyer cannot use that as a reason to get their earnest money back. If the buyer of a HUD home finds an inspection problem and they want to cancel it has to be a new problem that HUD did not find. You just have to make sure the seller is notified before the dates on the contract expire for those contingencies. It is actually pretty rare that a buyer will lose their earnest money unless their agent misses a date or the buyers decide to cancel the contract very late in the process after their contingencies have passed.

A home inspection is almost always performed at the request of the buyer, so you’ll have to pay for it out of pocket. Although it’s only a few hundred dollars for an inspection, that amount gets removed from your down payment savings, and you won’t get it back. Foundation inspection costs vary depending on where you live, but are generally about $500. Depending on what they find, your home inspector may suggest some of these additional inspections.

What is included in a home inspection?

They’re usually required by mortgage lenders, but home inspections are an optional service that can give you a good idea of whether the house is priced fairly and worth the cost. If you find major problems with a house that you did not know about, it makes sense to ask for repairs to be done or the price to be reduced. Some buyers will make an offer with the intention of asking for a price reduction from the inspection results, no matter how the inspection turns out. For investors who buy many houses, it can also hurt your chances to get a great deal.

For owner-occupants, HUD allows the buyer a 15 day inspection period. The buyer must pay for the utilities to be turned on for the inspection and in some cases, HUD will not allow the water to be turned on. HUD has all of their homes pre-inspected and they do a pressure test on the plumbing system.

Fear over losing a buyer to property condition

When you write a contract to buy a home or your real estate agent writes a contract for you, you usually include earnest money. A typical amount for earnest money is one percent of the purchase price, but it can vary depending on your location and the seller. The earnest money is a good faith deposit showing the buyer is serious about buying the home. However, that does not mean the earnest money is nonrefundable if the buyer backs out. Home inspectors look for signs of defects and damage from the swimming pool to the chimney to the foundation. A typical home inspector will note the potential issues and refer the buyer to a specialist to investigate and diagnose the problem.

Before your inspection day, you should also get a seller’s disclosure statement, which will help you identify any additional issues you want your inspector to look at. If they disclosed that they had a leaky window replaced or repaired, make sure that gets extra attention from your inspector. You should hire a licensed, professional inspector to conduct a thorough inspection.

Rustic, Refined, and Romantic: Is the French Country House Style Right for You?

I recommend Angie’s List to find reputable home inspectors and licensed contractors. A few of them depend on the region you are purchasing your new home. Buyers should always get a general home inspection, radon and depending on the are there are well, septic and other inspection types. A qualified wastewater professional typically inspects these systems, although some health departments do as well for a fee.

Unhealthy trees can infect the grass and other plants, which will downgrade your landscaping. An arborist can tell you whether the trees are healthy and worth keeping. He or she can also warn you about tree roots that could puncture your sewer lines and cause serious plumbing problems down the road.

Repairs to point out in marketing

But unless you're an experienced contractor who can spot deficiencies yourself, it makes sense. A professional home inspection is where a qualified home inspector looks for any defects and potential problems. Just as an appraisal is designed to protect mortgage lenders, an inspection is for the home buyer's benefit. Depending on where you live in the country may affect whether you should have a radon inspection. Consulting the home inspector and your agent can usually spread light on whether or not to get one.

Note that some home inspectors will not inspect roofs that they deem too high or steep for safety reasons. Should the roof be a concrete tile roof, slate or some other types of roofing materials they may not walk the roof for fear of damaging it. In these instances they may also recommend a specialty roof inspection. The content on this site is not intended to provide legal, financial or real estate advice.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a House in 2023?

A professional plumbing inspection can involve either a visual check or a diagnostic camera. During a pest inspection, an inspector checks the exterior and interior of your property for any signs of infestation, damage, or areas that are attractive to pests. Preventive roof maintenance can save homeowners thousands of dollars on average each year throughout a roof’s lifespan. Many homes built before 1978 were decorated with lead-based paint, which wasn’t outlawed until then. Airborne, lead can cause serious health conditions, up to premature death. It’s extremely expensive to replace lead-based paint, so if you’re looking at an older home, this would be a good inspection to include.

Having said that, I have not gotten an inspection or asked for an inspection contingency in a contract on the last ten houses I have bought. When you waive your inspection contingency it makes your offer much more attractive to the seller and gives you a better chance to get your offer accepted. This is a great tactic to use in a very competitive market when there are few deals to be had. The buyers can ask the seller to repair whatever they want or lower the price to whatever they want, but the seller does not have to agree to anything.

The EPA has a number of good articles about lead paint concerns and issues. Buyers or families with small children who are renovating older homes may have questions about lead paint. Parts of a sewer line that an inspector can see, i.e. in the crawl space area under the home, he will inspect. However, he can not see inside of these or the buried sewer lines.