Home Inspection? Is it necessary?

Question

Will Barnard · Answer

The home nspection is a very small cost in the grand scheme of things so I suggest you do not skip that step. It has multiple purposes and benefits as others described above. Unless you are tearing down most of it or ripping it to the studs, then a home inspection is a must in my book.

Charlie MacPherson · Answer

@Josh Rogers  Inspections have two purposes.

1. Try to uncover as many defects as possible.  While fewer surprises are better. inspectors can only report on what's visible.  You can have all sorts of problems hidden in the walls that they just can't get to - but there's a lot that they can and in my opinion, it's worth the investment if you're not an expert yourself.

2. Negotiate the price down during your due diligence period.  For example, if your inspector comes up with termite damage, you can ask for a price reduction or treatment by a licensed exterminator and repair of the damage by a licensed contractor.  Or, you might decide that the damage is more than you want to take on, and you get out of the deal.

It's good to have an independent set of eyes on things too.  Even better, the inspector won't have any emotional involvement in your deal.  He literally does not care at all whether you buy the house or not.

What he wants is to not get sued because he missed something he shouldn't have, so he's most likely going to do a very thorough job.

My advice is to use a reputable, licensed inspector and be there during the inspection so you can ask all the questions you want.

Kuba F. · Answer

The contractor is not going to tell you what to fix, you're going to tell the contractor that. How are you going to do that?  At a minimum you should fix the things that your buyer's inspector is going to look for, and in order to do that you'll need your own inspector.

Sean Carroll · Answer

@Josh Rogers it really depends, the Pros to having an inspection done is every point of the house is checked without the mistake of missing something such as forgetting to look at the electrical panel. What I do is pay my contractor to fill out a basic report that has all the main bullet points such as roof, mechanicals, siding, electrical, ect. and take pictures of the house and the main components.

The reason I do it this way is it is much cheaper and faster and then I also get a bid for labor since he knows what I like and don't like. Where using a licensed and trained inspector takes a week and I do not get a bid of costs to do the project. I also noticed that if I kept doing contingencies of an inspection my offers were getting turned down. I also found it more helpful to have a contractors number when submitting my offer to show that I wasn't just trying to rip them off.

Now you can do this yourself if you have a system in place so you do not miss an aspect of the house and you live in the area.

Ramel Sherman · Answer

I would definitely get an inspection.  Here in Los Angeles they go for $200 - $400.  Absolutely worth it IMO.

Home Inspection? Is it necessary?

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