The Importance of a Home Inspection

An inspection of the physical condition of a house should be included as a condition of closing the sale. Your real estate agent will make arrangements for a professional inspector to look for problems.

Home Inspection Checklist

What They’re Looking For

Defects could be found in:

• the roof
• plumbing
• electrical
• heating and cooling systems
• paint
• windows
• doors
• foundation.

The inspector will also check for:

• dry rot
• mold
• pest infestations
• grading
• drainage
• retaining walls

You might want to arrange for inspections for mold, asbestos, lead or radon. Depending on the property, you may want to ask for testing well water, oil tanks or septic systems. Most inspectors are qualified to conduct all of these tests, although some may require additional fees.

Responsibilities: Seller and Buyer

The process requires sellers to provide a disclosure sheet about any issues of which they are aware. This is just a starting point for the inspector, however. There are likely problems the sellers either don’t know exist or have actually forgotten about.

It is most common for buyers to have the inspection done after they have made an offer and the sale of the house is contingent on the buyer’s approval of the results of the inspections and resulting repairs. Keep in mind that all objectionable inspection issues must be “repairs” and not “improvements”. For example, a repair may be a broken window and an improvement would be new counter tops.

Cost and Time

The inspection usually takes two or three hours and will usually cost between $200 to $500. This depends on the size, age, location and type of home. Buyers are encouraged to be present during the inspection so they can ask questions, learn about maintenance of the property and get a sense of which problems are serious and which are fairly minor.

Results

The inspector will provide a written report of all findings. This will be presented to both the buyers and sellers. If the report shows no major problems, you can move forward with the purchase. You can  feel confident that you are getting what you are paying for. If there are big issues on the report, like major termite damage or an antiquated electrical panel, you can negotiate with the sellers to have them pay for repairs or lower the purchase price, or you can back out of the deal completely.

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