How does one get property inspected prior to making an offer? Is

Question

There is no mention regarding inspecting property prior to making an offer.  Specifically, if you are making an offer from another geographic area?  Are the expenses of inspection included in the DEAL CALCULATOR?  How does one know whether they're making an offer on a total dump that will require major repairs?  Thanks!!

Caroline Gerardo · Answer

If you are using a local listing buyer's agent they will give you names of inspectors. Costs vary per location and depth of inspection you want. $500 - $2000 is a range. If you need well, septic, radon, foundation, or other more particular inspections those often are another company.

Tod Rubin · Answer

Thanks to Caroline and Kirk.  Just like in every other home purchase I've been involved in.  I just wanted to make sure the costs of inspection can be inserted in the Deal Calculator to properly and accurately vet the deal.  Thanks for your responses and insight.

Alecia Loveless · Answer

@Tod Rubin I’m still primarily investing locally and know a LOT about many properties in my market when they come on or I find out about them if I get offered them pre-listing. So, I often can weed out the bad ones and only look at ones I’m likely to make an offer on.

Then, I usually have my contractor go with me on the initial showing. We don’t do a thorough inspection, but he will bring a wire tester to check the wiring to see if it’s grounded and he looks for defects I might miss.

Afterwards if he says it looks good and I agree, I’ll make my offer and we go through the process of getting it accepted and doing due diligence with the formal inspection process.

Kirk Waldron · Answer

Hi Tod,

Usually the inspection is part of the offer process. You make an offer and then the offer is countered or accepted and within the "due dilligence" deadline, you will have an inspection happen. Many lenders will want an inspection/appraisal on the property to make sure everything is koshur for their lending needs as well. Once you have the inspection in hand, you can use that as leverage to request cash back for repairs off the purchase price, or you can ask for some items to be fixed by the owner prior to purchase. Brandon or David mention in an episode, that you don't necessarily say "fix this or the deal is off" but the implication when you mention an item in the inspection report is that if something is not made right, you could consider walking away from the deal.

Ill use an example of a recent property i had under contract. This property had 3 fireplaces and the middle floor fireplace has a large crack in the stone at the back of the fireplace. There were also a few outlets that didn't have power. There were other things in the inspection but these were the main two that i was concerned about because you can't even use a wood burning fireplace with a crack like this one. I said to the seller, these two items are very concerning but the rest were things that I didn't mind taking care. etc etc.

Hope this helps.

How does one get property inspected prior to making an offer? Is

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