Home Inspection

Unless you know quite a bit about home construction and quality, you will probably want to get a Home Inspection done when your offer is accepted.

After your offer is accepted and the contract is written up your realtor should suggest (if they do not suggest this, you should insist upon it) that there be a contingency based upon the results of a home inspection.  This contingency will allow you out of the contract without losing your earnest money (if any is applied) if a problem is found with the house that the current owner is not willing to fix and you are not willing to assume the cost of repairing.

Your realtor will generally have a list of Home Inspectors they have worked with in the past.  It is probably a good idea to call a few of them and get an idea of their charges and what types of things they will inspect.  Some inspectors will include termite and other wood destroying insect (WDI) inspections while others will refer you to a pest control company for these types of inspections. 

Many inspectors will probably use a standardized form that is printed from their computer using a home inspection software application.  Most of the information printed in the report will be generic information- which can be useful; however, you are looking for the comments and possibly even photographs that your inspector has inserted into the report.

The real benefits of the home inspection is that it can alert you to problems with the home which you can require the seller fix or which may cause you to reconsider your purchase.  Either way, the inspection gives you the information you need to get the problem solved or get out of a bad deal without a lot of loss.

Sometimes Home Inspections can lead you to situation which may require further detailed inspections by individuals specializing in specific systems.  These specialized inspections could include termite and WDI inspections, HVAC inspections, pool and spa inspections or others .  Specialized inspections will add to your inspection cost, but it can save you money in the long run. 

To get the home inspection for our new home, we asked our realtor for a list of inspectors that she reccomends.  We then called several of these inspectors asking a variety of questions regarding price,  items they inspect, how quickly we get the report and in what format the report is given to us.

We ended up choosing an inspector that was not on our realtors list. Evidently we chose well because our realtor added the inspector to her list of inspectors.  We were able to get our report the next day through email, there were several small items on the report and only one large concern with the AC coil. Our home inspection cost $350.

In our case the Home Inspector noticed a problem with a condenser coil in the attic of our potential home, we had an HVAC technician come and take a look at it, he recommended it be replaced.  We required the seller to replace the coil by putting this into our list of required repairs.  The extra inspection costed us a couple extra hundred dollars, but it saves us a thousand dollars in the long run once the seller pays for and installs the new coil.