Home inspections (agents, accept, insurance, agreement)

[songinthewind7]

Not sure if this question is for realtors or not but do any of you all have any knowledge on the inspection of houses? In Texas, before a house is sold, the buyer pays for an inspection if he/she wants one which I think is a good idea especially in an older home.
What all do the inspection companys inspect?

[Bill Hitchcock]

The folks we use here in North Carolina are very comprehensive in what and how they check things! These are their areas of concentration:
Roof, Heating systems, Basement, Garage, Interior, HVAC Systems, Electrical System, Foundation, Insulation, Plumbing, Exterior, Built In Appliances.
A home inspection is highly encouraged, but not mandatory for buyers here in North Carolina.
We pay for one for all of our new listings.
Bill

[songinthewind7]

Thanks Bill for your input.
Cheryl

[2bindenver]

The scope of the inspection depends on the buyers and inspectors agreement to trade money for service.

[VaNative]

DO NOT buy ANY house...new or old without a home inspection. You may be sorry if you do.

[rrah]

One thing to note---the inspector does NOT have x ray vision. He or she cannot see behind walls, into the bowels of furnaces, and so on. He is a generalist, not a specialist, so he or she may recommend further inspections by a specialist if there is some reason to do so.

I always encourage my clients to do an inspection, but do remind them it would be impossible for a single person to find everything wrong with a house, especially if it's behind walls.

[momoffive]

what happens when the home inspection sites a few "things" about the house that cost $$ to fix, but leads the buyers to believe that it is a huge deal when it was literally a couple hundred dolards to fix?? buyer ends up walking away and we have no copy of the report...what can a homeowner do?

[Gretchen B]

Originally Posted by momoffive

what happens when the home inspection sites a few "things" about the house that cost $$ to fix, but leads the buyers to believe that it is a huge deal when it was literally a couple hundred dolards to fix?? buyer ends up walking away and we have no copy of the report...what can a homeowner do?

Unfortunately, that does happen. A good inspector will put things in perspective in his report. An inspector that I recommend will usually say something like this or that is noted, "however this is typical of a home of this age", or something along those lines, so the buyer can decide which things are truly problems with the home.

One thing you can do as a seller is to have your own home inspection done (by a home inspector of your choosing) before you put your home on the market. Then make the needed repairs and have a copy of the inspection report as well as the repair tickets (or estimates if you chose not to repair them yourself) available for prospective buyers. The buyers are still encouraged to have their own home inspection done, but at least if they hire one of the "know-nothing nit-pickers" you'll be able to counterract that "bad" inspection with your good inspection. At the very least it will throw doubt in the buyer's mind about the legitimacy of the "bad" inspection. This can go a long way to keeping a deal together. Plus getting your own home inspection eliminates any unexpected surprises.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by momoffive

what happens when the home inspection sites a few "things" about the house that cost $$ to fix, but leads the buyers to believe that it is a huge deal when it was literally a couple hundred dolards to fix?? buyer ends up walking away and we have no copy of the report...what can a homeowner do?

This can happen, it's happened to me a couple of times, thankfully we had a couple of good agents who calmed everything down and got them to be realistic. Unless the buyer is serious or inexperienced they will look for most any excuse to walk, wrong paint, wallpaper/no wallpaper carpet,floors etc. It really comes down to the agents and how they handle the little "bumps" in the road. The seller really can't do anything other than accept what the buyer wants done within reason but I would want to see a copy of the report showing the faults. I guess you could always hire your own inspector to see if he counters the other report but unless you're talking major issues it's probably a waste of time.

The BIG thing about inspectors is MAKE SURE THEY ARE CERTIFIED! ASHI or other national certification (I think there are 2) and have error and ommission insurance will at least mean they have some clue as to what they are doing unlike one non-certified bozo we hired who missed a lot of very expensive problems.

[UseJeff]

Don't forget you can buy home warranties for any property upon a purchase as well. It could really be worth it for older properties. In addition, if you buy a new property, don't be afraid to knock on a few doors of houses built by the builder. Ask the people if they have had any problems with their houses. The scuttlebutt I've heard in the past is usually pretty consistent of a shoddy builder. ie. they have lots of problems in all their houses...