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When I bought my last house we had one inspector. Are the above mentioned inspectors a typical requirement these days? Or are people just going above and beyond the "old norm."
Individual inspections may or may not be necessary for your area. We have hired individual inspectors for specific issues. In our area home inspectors do not deal at all with septics or wells. We have also had an independent HVAC inspection as we suspected issues.
They aren't a requirement, but many buyer's are choosing to do more inspections. Lead paint is only pre 1978 so you wouldn't need to do that on a new home.
There are as many inspectors as there are pills in a doans bottle!! I would start with a general practioner, if the house is built before 1978 AND you expect to do renovation and really want to check for lead paint (however, you can also just assume if the house is pre 78 you DO have lead paint), if you are in a radon area or not, and is the house stucco (than I recommend EIFS inspection).
Your best bet, get a good agent that can help you navigate. these inspections aren't cheap.
In my area, the seller pays for the septic and well inspection, if applicable. The rest is the buyer's dime. Of course this is negotiable, too.
Most buyers use one general inspector who also does radon testing. If findings warrant, they may bring in specialists. If the home is older and potentially historic, it is quite common to bring in the army right away.
I am a huge advocate of a presale home inspection.
Please make sure that your home inspector is certified by the National Association of Home Inspectors and for how long. Buying a house out of state, I took a recommendation from my real estate agent. After many major issues, I had another inspection done, found out the first inspector had less than two months experience. Second one had 16 years, first one took less than 2 hours as per the inspector, second one took 6 hours for same inspector, first charged $500, second one $260. Now suing first inspector for errors and omissions. I never would have purchased this home with all the major issues the first inspector missed. My home at present is a fire hazard and I am unable to afford the $20k to fix this and the major plumbing and window issues. So please investigate the background, certification, and experience of your inspector.
We had a separate tradesmen inspect each system in the house because the house is older and is a larger home. We wanted the individual system to be inspected thoroughly by someone who is accustomed to servicing that particular area. We had a man for the slate roof, hvac, alarm system, plumbing, structural engineer.
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