Is home inspection necessary while buying a home?
tl;dr Dr. Yes!!!
OK, now the longer version. The mere fact that you’re asking whether you need an inspection tells me that yes, indeed, you would. Doing A home inspection is needed.
home inspections are worth it
Why are home inspections important?
Because you are not a home inspector, and you either have no experience or enough to be dangerous. I do not mean that everyone started with no experience. But both scenarios scare me that you need a home inspection.
I just bought my favorite house: ugly, old, and in need of lots of love. There’s weeds in the backyard, a smoky smell in the house, 70s wallpaper, used white carpet, tiled counters, and 80s wallpaper. It features an awkward-but-fixable layout, out-of-code stair railings, and more wallpaper. (Ugh!! Curse on the person who invented wallpaper!)
I wrote the proposal while on vacation, because that’s always the case. We negotiated price, hit it off, and I scheduled my inspections for that week, as I left for another conference the following week. I had set my observation period to be some 18 days in case I was unable to execute them all before leaving.
This home has an in-ground pool, so I knew I needed a pool inspection as well. Oh, and after I submit the offer, the listing agent drops in on me that the pool heater doesn’t work and hasn’t worked for at least five years.
um what? Why was this very popular detail not included in the listing?!
Reasons You Need to Do a Home Inspection
The house itself is in pretty rough shape, and radon is very common in our neck of the woods, so I knew I had to get a full house inspection done. I’ve done this before, I know what I’m looking for, and I still got an inspection, because I need a second trained set of eyes on this property. (Actually, like a sixth or seventh pair of eyes. I brought three rehab friends with me to one show, plus my husband.)
Connected: 7 Essential Elements of Your Home Inspection (Beware of #7!)
In the area where I invest there is an inspector that every agent I know recommends, and I have used him before with satisfactory results. However, I helped my friend Jake buy a home that was previously under contract and was let out due to inspection issues. (Jake likes unattractive houses too, and this was no exception.)
The listing agent for Jake’s home very helpfully provided past inspection reports, which we absolutely took advantage of. This was the most comprehensive, thorough inspection report my client has ever read – and I must say I agree with him 100 percent.
I called this new inspector over to inspect my property, and he came out with his fine-toothed comb.
Their report not only shared the things that were clearly obvious: broken window in master bedroom, smell of smoke, old, etc., but their report also included security issues that had I didn’t know about it. In particular, the fencing around the pool was inadequate, built backwards, and needed to be replaced as soon as possible to comply with state-mandated fencing regulations for pools.
I’ve had houses with pools before. I didn’t know the fence was backward- or that would be the smallest of my problems.
The seller named the person who has taken care of his pool for the past few years. This guy came out and spent about an hour with us, and boy, did he mess up! There is a leak in the pipe running between the filter basket and the pump. Currently, the filter basket is inactive, as it was bypassed during the pool’s opening this year.
This type of repair is the worst kind of repair—what I call “unknown cost repair.” The pipe is underground, which means you can’t really see where the leak is – you’ll have to dig until you find it. Part of the pipe is under cement, so if you have to break it open to find the leak, it can get expensive really quickly. The pool guy said it would cost between $500 and $5,000, simply because they didn’t know where it was.
But even more expensive were the known issues with the pool—that broken pool heater and it needed to be re-plastered five years ago. I could already see that this would be required, not to mention complete retailing and re-bricking.
40X value
You hear 10X being thrown around here and there on sites, podcasts, etc. My home inspection was 40X! They literally saved me 40 times what I paid for my home inspection.
After getting the inspection report, my husband and I sat down and talked about it. The amount of work we need to see is small compared to what is uncovered during inspections. Did we also want to continue this contract?
Connected: What investors should know about the home inspection process
We decided we still liked the neighborhood and still liked the house. I sent a note to the listing agent that night letting him know that the inspections had revealed far more issues with the home, and that unless we could negotiate a significant discount, we would have to cancel the contract.
He asked what I meant by significant, and I replied with $42,000. I didn’t have high hopes for this transaction to go through, as we’re in a pretty hot real estate market, the home is located in a great neighborhood, and nothing has sold for less than $400,000 here since 2017. They countered with $40,000 and I accepted just as quickly.
Therefore, $1,000 spent on a home inspection brings down the value of $40,000. I would say money well spent.
Protect yourself and your investment. Get the home inspected with a qualified home inspector.
Can I answer any other home inspection questions for you? Have you heard any horror stories from buyers who didn’t get a professional home inspection?
Share in the comment section below!
Note by BiggerPockets: These are the views expressed by the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BigPockets.
