What Really Matters
Buying a home?
The process can be stressful. A home inspection is supposed to give you peace of mind, but often has the opposite effect. You will be asked to absorb a lot of information in a short time. This often includes a written report, checklist, photographs, environmental reports and what the inspector himself says during the inspection. All this combined with the details you notice yourself can make the experience even more overwhelming.
What should you do?
Relax. Most of your inspection is about maintenance recommendations, life expectancies and minor imperfections. These are nice to know about. However, the issues that really matter, fall into 4 categories:
- Major defects. An example of this would be a structural failure.
- Things that lead to major defects. A small roof-flashing leak, for example.
- Things that hinder your ability to finance, legally occupy or insure the home.
- Safety hazards, such an exposed, live buss bar at the electric panel.
Anything in these categories should be addressed. Often a serious problem can be corrected inexpensively to protect both life and property (especially in categories 2 and 4).
A home inspection enables a buyer to make an informed choice. Often times finding defects or problems can allow you to renegotiate the selling price or have the seller make the repairs to satisfaction as a condition of the sale.
A home inspection before you buy is the only return on an investment that is practically guaranteed. Finding over a thousand dollars worth of problems is very common and can provide good leverage for repairs pre-sale or price renegotiations. If there is nothing wrong, the buyer gets piece-of-mind and an education on general house maintenance.
A home inspection can also eliminate any buyers’ remorse for both the buyer and the real estate agent because everything has been disclosed by an unbiased third-party.
Remember - No home is perfect. Keep things in perspective. Do not kill a deal over things that do not matter.