Home Inspections: What Are They and When Do You Need One?
The home buying process is a long and complicated one. If you’re a new home buyer, that may feel overwhelming to you, which is nothing to be ashamed of. Your realtor will guide you through the process, but most likely (especially if you’re reading this article) you want to do some research for yourself. A home inspection is one of the things that is on the buyer to do as they enter into the home buying process.
What Exactly Is a Home Inspection?
A home inspection is exactly what it sounds like. A professional walks through a home and checks everything that’s wrong with it, including small things that may become bigger issues later on. This is done during the home-buying process to give the buyer an overview of what they are considering buying. While some sellers may have a home inspection done as a part of the listing process, buyers need to have one done by a home inspector that they trust.
Reasons to Get One
Even though home inspections are commonly done during the home-buying process, you shouldn’t only get one done because they are always done. Home inspections are a great way to help you understand what you are purchasing before you spend thousands of dollars on something that you may not actually want.
Exposes Hidden Issues
When you tour a home that’s up for sale, it’s similar to going to an interview. Everyone is on their best behavior, and everything looks perfect. If you’ve ever started a job and realized the person you interviewed with was wording things to make the company seem better, you know how disappointing discovering that can be. The same can happen when buying a home.
The good thing is that home inspectors are trained to look for the things that are easily hidden to an untrained eye. They can tell when something that had been written off as a small quirk of the home by the previous owner actually might mean that the wooden beams beneath the floorboards are decaying.
Can Be Used to Negotiate
Anything that your home inspector finds during the inspection can be used to negotiate with the seller before you officially sign the papers. You can ask to have the seller repair any broken things found on their own dime before you purchase the home or lower the price you’ll be paying to account for fixing those issues yourself. Any good realtor will have included a designated negotiating period after the inspection when they made the offer on your behalf. If you don’t have an inspection done, that negotiating period is waived, which can come back around to bite you if there is something seriously wrong with the home.
Gives You Peace of Mind
Buying a home is a large purchase and often comes with a lot of stress throughout the process. What if the seller is omitting a serious problem with the house that will cost your thousands of dollars down the line on top of the thousands you’re paying to buy the house in the first place? An inspection gives you the peace of mind that a professional has come in and looked for things wrong with the house. Even though inspectors don’t guarantee perfection (because they are human), you are still going to be better off than if you had just looked at it yourself.
Gives You an Out
Inspections reveal anything wrong with the home, and occasionally, they reveal more than you expected them to. Any reputable realtor submits an offer with a condition on an acceptable inspection being performed. This is what gives you the negotiating power and what allows you to back out if you’re not willing to deal with the issues found.
