Home Inspection

I’d like to talk a little bit about home inspections. First off - have a home inspection! The best thing about a home inspection is that you will know your home.  You will not walk into your home after closing as a stranger. You will know where everything‘s at and you should know how everything works! Home inspections are not for renegotiating purchase price or for you to ask for things that you can see easily with your eyes.   Those are dealt with in your purchase price.  For example, if you see peeling paint, you don’t get to ask for it. I’m not saying it might not have to be dealt with if you have a VA loan or something, but you don’t get to ask for it in an inspection if it’s something that you can easily see. If a home doesn’t have gutters when you look at it, and you negotiate an offer on a home without gutters; don’t be surprised if the seller says no if you ask for them after an inspection. The inspection is for items that are not easily seen or out of most purchasers area of expertise and even then generally relegated to safety/structural/home systems issues overall. If you find something that would need to be disclosed on a seller’s property disclosure; then chances are a seller will need to deal with it in one way or another regardless - so that would be something to ask for.  There are several ways to negotiate inspection items. One is to have the seller have them done prior to closing -generally by licensed contractor. Or sometimes a credit at closing so that the buyer can do them after closing is a better way to do it. Some lenders won’t allow a credit for inspection items, but they will allow a credit towards closing cost and or prepaid buyers expenses so sometimes the addendum will be worded in that way instead. If you do end up with an inspection that causes you to not want to purchase the property, you’ll be very thankful that you had that contingency in there!  

Just remember to always have a home inspection!