The Top Three (3) Reasons Buyers Should Get a Home Inspection

​Buyers are taking on risks when purchasing a property and generally want to take actions that  reduce those risks, which is why buyers represent the bulk of the market for home inspections. The top reasons why buyers should get a home inspection include:

1. To learn much more about the house.

Some buyers may make an offer based upon only a 30-minute or so walk-through of the house, whereas a home inspector will spend several hours methodically examining all the various systems of the house from top to bottom. He or she will look with an experienced eye in all the accessible locations the buyers likely did not study in any detail, such as: the roof, in the attic, inside the utility closet, inside the crawlspace, and (most cases) inside the electrical panel. Even with an “as-is” purchase, it is much better to have professional help to detail the issues / concerns to acquire more information about the house.

The inspector will likely catch many things that the buyer would miss. The inspector is looking for structural problems, health and safety issues, problems with roofing, ventilation, insulation, heating, cooling, plumbing and electrical issues. Since they have probably looked at hundreds of good examples, anomalies (i.e., defects, issues, concerns) literally jump out at them.

A portion of the inspection report is providing valuable informational and proactively answers questions, such as:

• Where the main water and fuel shutoffs are located?
• Where the main disconnect for electricity is located and what is the available electrical amperage?
• What types of siding materials are present?
• Approximately how old is the roof?

 
​You will receive a good overview of the major systems of your new home.

Although a home inspection is visual only and not invasive, most inspectors will employ a variety of inspection tools as applicable to help discover defects and verify their visual and olfactory observations. These are just some of the specialized tools that inspectors may use:

• Receptacle Tester—detects if an electrical outlet is wired correctly. Incorrectly wired outlets are an electrical shock hazards.
• GFCI / AFCI Circuit Testers—allows the inspector to perform realistic tests of Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) and Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI) equipped branch circuits.  
• Moisture Meter—reports the percent moisture content of drywall, wood, or masonry. Used to detect if an apparent water stain is likely active or dormant. Wood and other solid materials tend to rot and deteriorate when their moisture content exceeds 20%.  
• Humidity Meter—determines the relative humidity in the air. Just how damp is the crawlspace? Mold starts to grow and insects tend to invade when relative humidity reaches 65%.
• Infrared Thermometer—reports the temperature of an object without requiring contact, such as the temperature of a furnace exhaust vent.
• Carbon Monoxide Test/Monitor Devices—able to detect low-levels of carbon monoxide (CO) in the air below the alarm level threshold of standard home CO detectors. Even low amounts of CO are considered a health concern. CO in the air can be indicative of a fuel-based appliance that may not be burning fuel properly, not vented properly, or has a leak within the heat exchanger.
• Combustible Gas Detector—determines if a combustible gas is in the air, which is a fire and explosion hazard.
• Pole-mounted cameras—useful for inspecting hard to reach areas and roofs that are unsafe to walk upon.
• Aerial Drones—useful for inspecting roofs that are unsafe to walk upon.
• Thermal-Imaging Cameras--senses heat radiation emitted from objects and converts that into a color image. When there are significant enough temperature anomalies at the wall (or equipment) surface, these will then show up as color variations in the resulting image. In this manner, thermal cameras can sometimes be used to detect such things as insulation problems, overloaded electrical circuits, water leaks, and even pest infestations behind walls and ceilings.

Thermal Image of a Kitchen
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Using their practiced eyes and useful detection tools, home inspectors will gather much information about the condition of a dwelling in a short amount of time and relay that to the buyer in a detailed report. If possible, you will want to be present during the home inspection so that the inspector can point out important observations and for you to ask questions. However, try not to interrupt the inspector too much and let them go through their regular routine, which will help the inspector to not miss anything.

2.  To identify safety concerns.

​While home inspectors are not building-code inspectors, they have a similar mission focused on the safety of occupants. Home inspectors sometimes quote international building codes and trade association safety standards as guidance in many important areas of the home inspection. However, those are used only as representative of "modern standards" and not a substitute for local building codes that could be different or even mute on the subject.
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As most people know, building codes change over time. For example, what was considered good practice and safe in 1965, such as using solid aluminum wiring in electrical branch circuits, is no longer considered safe and the building codes everywhere have since changed. In other words, many people were killed in electrical fires and homes destroyed caused by faulty aluminum wire connections and governments reacted promptly to update the rules. Apply that same principal to hundreds of other unsafe building practices that led to property damage and people getting hurt, with subsequent building code additions and changes, to get a sense of what building codes contained in 1965 versus what they cover today.

So, that begs the question, is a home built in 1965 that passed a rigorous building-code inspection at that time safe to occupy today? The short answer is, it depends upon what renovations, repairs, and upgrades were done to the home in accordance to more modern building code standards since 1965. Building code inspectors only perform re-inspections to current codes whenever significant renovations, additions, and repairs to the home are covered by permits. If no permitted major renovations or repairs have been done to the house, or the homeowner or contractor performed work not in accordance with modern standards, many unsafe building conditions could be present.

Home inspectors are specifically trained to look for solid-conductor aluminum branch wiring in homes built in the mid-to-late 1960’s, for instance, as well as dozens of other specific safety concerns that tend to persist in homes. This is a key reason why you want to use a home inspector.

3. To identify potentially costly repairs or needed upgrades.

Most issues that are discovered during a home inspection are minor and should not factor in your decision to purchase. Home inspectors include those into the report to help you get a better picture of the overall condition of the house. However, many repairs, replacements, and upgrades recommended by the home inspector could cost hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars. Those are the issues that you really want to know about as buyer.

If there is an inspection contingency to the purchase contract, the buyer likely has some bargaining leverage with the seller. Focusing on the bigger-ticket repair items, the buyer has five main courses of action, which could be applied selectively to each individual issue:

• Do nothing. If the issue is a safety concern, for example, then the buyer may decide to simply accept those risks and defer the recommended upgrade and associated costs to some indefinite date.
• Take responsibility for performing the repair after the sale. Perhaps the house is a “fixer-upper” for which the condition is already reflected in the home price and that was the plan all along. In which case, the inspection report largely serves to clarify the scope of the repairs and upgrades needed.
• Request that the seller perform selected repairs before the close of escrow.
• Ask for a seller’s credit to the buyer ($) to help pay for the repairs to be performed by the buyer after close of escrow. This could perhaps be the preferred choice of the seller, as it will be likely less stress on them versus having to complete repairs within a short time window.
• Ask for a price reduction on the sale price on the house in light of expensive repairs that were revealed by the home inspection, but not included in the listing description.

It is sometimes a delicate negotiation between the buyer and seller to arrive at a satisfactory resolution. There are tons of variations as well as some rules that need to be followed. It is important for all parties to be reasonable. What is possible can depend on several factors, including market conditions. For instance, if it is a seller’s market and the seller has several backup offers waiting in the wings, the buyer’s bargaining leverage with the seller may be reduced. So, listen to what your realtor is recommending. The sixth possible course of action is, of course, the dreaded "walk away" option that nobody wants, including the home inspector. It is important to note that most home inspectors are well-attuned to this entire process and are often quite interested to hear what the outcome was for their client.

See also:

A Home Inspection, Defined
The Top Three (3) Reasons a Seller Should Get a Home Inspection