How to Use Home Inspection Report to Your Advantage
If you are considering investing in a home and realizing your home buying dream, then first it is advisable to get a home inspection done. A home inspection report is of great value to home buyers.
If you are new to this, don’t you worry! In today’s post we’ll be providing you quality information on how to use home inspection to your advantage.
To begin with, a home inspection report is a document that details practically everything that is right (and wrong) with a potential home. It contains a great deal of information collected by a qualified professional which enables you to understand whether investing in the home you plan to purchase is a good idea or not. A home inspection report is a valued tool that you should go through carefully to ensure you make a profitable investment.
Remember if anything in the report makes you uncomfortable about purchasing the home make sure it is resolved before you sign the papers. This is important because once the paperwork is finalized and the deal is closed, then you won’t be able to do anything it. Therefore, it is advisable to read the home inspection report thoroughly to ensure all the issues and problems listed in the report are taken care of before the deal is sealed.
Here are some issues that you must get resolved and use the report to your advantage to make a sweet home buying investment:
Foundation- Does the report say anything about the foundation of the home? Are there cracks? If yes, are these cracks because of settling or some more serious problem like the soil or the structure of the home. Here you might want to hire an engineer to shore up sags in the foundation.
Roof & Gutters- Make sure the roof is in good shape. If the report mentions roof damages then make sure it is fixed by the home seller before the deal is closed by you. The roof has to be in good shape to keep out the elements like rain and snow. Small roof damages are easy to repair and not that costly however, big repairs may cost you a hefty sum. So, use the report to your benefit and if there are big repairs, make sure these are fixed.
Also, make sure the gutters and downspouts are securely attached and also free of debris. If the gutters are clogged, your gutters and roof might cost you big time.
Siding- If the siding requires a costly paint job make sure the home seller gets it painted.
The internal factors that you must carefully study in the report and get them fixed by the home seller before you purchase that home include heating and air systems, ducts & vents, smoke alarms and other lighting and water heating systems.
Use the report to your advantage so that you don’t have to end up spending huge sums of money on costly repairs.
Comments (3)
@Mike Jakobczak
Thanks for the informative post. How would you use the inspection report during the due diligence phase of purchasing property as a rental?
Anne James, over 9 years ago
Hey Frankie, thanks for the comment!
Honestly I'm a big fan of referrals from other investors/professionals. I use to just use my contractors to go in but opt back in getting a home inspector for the purposes of my investors/partners sake. It allows them to have a third party opinion and not just rely on my team.
Now home inspectors are only going to be able to get some much information. Remember some parts of the house are almost impossible to inspect due to how the property is built. So without tearing down walls, you will never get every issue. Having said that a good home inspector with many years of experience in construction and inspections will be able to tell you major issues that may be a problem with their experience in that market and in the field. They should have a good understanding on the local neighborhoods and the houses when they were built, etc and will be able to give you typical examples of things they have seen and if it relates with your property.
I also prefer working with inspectors who inspect roofs by going on top on them and that crawl through the crawl space and not just look from abroad. My inspectors that I have used are very OCD and are over broad with their inspections but this is what I prefer. Better to know every little detail then skip over and do a half-ass job, for lack of a better term.
Hope this helps!
Mike Jakobczak, over 9 years ago
Mike, how do you find a good home inspector and how often would you suppose a home inspector misses something big? My fear stems from all the HGTV shows that I've watched where a home inspection is completed, the team pulls down some wallpaper/toilet/etc. and finds all sorts of expensive and hidden problems.
Frankie Woods, over 9 years ago