Home inspections at a minimum can provide peace of mind or even possibly allow you to negotiate with the seller to have certain repairs completed.
The ability to have a home inspection completed is negotiated as part of your offer. You can indicate in your offer that you wish to do an inspection and whether the offer is contingent on your home inspection. A time frame is set in which you agree to have your home inspection completed along with negotiating any repairs if needed.
You can use anyone to conduct your home inspection but it’s recommended that you use a qualified professional that does home inspections full time. Professional home inspectors will use exhaustive checklists to make sure every part of the home that is accessible is inspected. The cost of an inspection usually starts around $500 but can go up from there depending on what other services you wish the home inspector to complete.
After your inspection, the inspector will walk through the house with you and put together a report. Inspectors will find problems with every house, however, it’s up to you if the problems found are deal breakers or not.
