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Your home inspection is not JUST a negotiation tool

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Many times a buyer’s offer that has been accepted is contingent on the home inspection. Unfortunately for some buyers, this means being on edge until they receive the report. Of course, if the seller had their own home inspection done before listing the home for sale, called a Pre-Listing Inspection and highly recommended, then the sellers would already know what to expect and would be confident because of their previous report. Otherwise, a home inspection is many times seen as a necessity for closing on a home sale. While the inspection report is used as a negotiation tool most times, it should also be used as an educational tool for the buyers and their new home.

For many buyers, buying a home will be the biggest purchase of their lives. It’s not unreasonable that a buyer wants their “new home” to be “perfect”! Also in the mix are the two realtors, usually one representing the buyer and the other agent representing the seller – both wanting what’s best for their client’s interest. This is a “many cooks in the kitchen stirring the pot” kind of scenario!

A home inspection is a report used to provide additional information about the home. Generally, if there is a major issue with the home, the seller will issue a credit towards the buyer to cover the cost of fixing any major issues; or the buyer can request the seller have the issue fixed before closing on the purchase of the house. Either request is not unreasonable and is often seen in home-purchasing deals. That being said, the home inspection is essential to a home purchase and should be completed before closing on the purchase. The information in a home inspection report could save the buyer a lot of costs down the road, or at the least, make the buyer aware of issues that will need to be addressed immediately. This is where the educational part of a home inspection comes into play. Not only does an inspection notify the buyers of any immediate issues, but more importantly, the inspection report will educate the buyers on upcoming maintenance, issues they could foresee down the road, costs to prepare for, etc.

Either way there are justifiable negotiations before most home closings, and it is the responsibility of both agents to explain this to their clients. For this reason, most negotiations happen before the offer is accepted. Obvious issues in the home will be considered when pricing the home for sale in the beginning so major issues may already be addressed before the home inspection, but that doesn’t mean you should skip this step. Divinity Inspections Service offers our most-qualified inspectors to review the home / property to make sure there are no major “hidden” or underlying issues and that is really the most important knowledge in this kind of investment. When considering the importance of education a buyer receives from a home inspection, they may be less anxious and more excited to learn about their new home.

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Why do I need a home inspection?

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Often people have a misconception about what a home inspection is all about or what it is intended to provide. Divinity Inspection would like to clear up some of your concerns. First of all, no inspection should be considered to be a guarantee of finding all defects. In the real world this just cannot be accomplished. Inspectors do not have the option of probing into finished surfaces or concealed areas.

That being said, what we look for are indicators of some condition that may raise a question or concern of a past or current situation. Some conditions may only present themselves only occasionally such as flickering lights or waste line back ups. It’s every inspector’s hope that such situations crop up during the home inspection, but we’re not always that lucky.

A property inspection is not intended as a code compliance evaluation. Building codes by the way are minimum standards and can vary widely by state, country and even village. There are also new versions of each code that are generated from time to time. Keeping up with all them is next to impossible. So we look for conditions that meet national standards as well as what we call “best practice.” Our inspection is based upon the conditions as they exist at the time of the inspection. We cannot warrant that conditions will not change after our evaluation.

In our inspections we are primarily concerned with issues that have to do with safety and/or significant repair cost. Much of what we find we consider to be normal wear & tear items that would be corrected after settlement. These are not conditions that would necessarily warrant a request of the seller to repair. Such issues are secondary to us, ones that we do not give as much attention to when we go through a home. For example, the need for some minor grouting or caulking in a shower stall would be minor. On the other hand, loose tile and indication of water damage in the wall would major and be of more concern; and be a reasonable request of the seller to correct.

We have no authority to enforce standards but rather to merely point out conditions as they exist and make recommendations. We will recommend repair to minor grouting in the shower stall just as we would for a leaking roof. Our goal is to help our client distinguish between the significant needs of the home and those that are more commonplace.