Lets talk home inspections! We chatted with Sarah Pritchard who has attended hundreds of home inspections and is quite versed in what happens during an inspection, what inspectors look for, and the nitty gritty parts of a home. Lets get into it:
How long does a home inspection take and who attends?
Inspections can take anywhere from 1.5 hours to 5 hours, depending on the size of the house, and who is present depends on the mechanicals and makeup of the house. Normally you would have the buyers attend along with their agent, and the home inspector. Usually it’s a private inspection with those three parties. The seller should not be home at all during that time. If the house has well or septic, you would have a separate home inspector to do that aspect of the inspection.
What can buyers expect with a home inspection?
Once a buyer has an accepted offer on a home, they will have to schedule an inspection with a home inspector to be completed with 7 business days of offer acceptance. We will suggest home inspectors we have had positive experiences with and recommend. A home inspection is the buyer’s opportunity to walk through the home with the home inspector and the Realtor to learn how things work in the house, and if there are any building, structural, mechanical, environmental, health, or safety concerns. The inspector will check the plumbing, electrical, structure, and for pests, mold, radon, and your septic and well, if
applicable. They will inspect every inch and corner of the home, including the basement, garage, outbuildings, crawl spaces, attic, and roof. They will then email you a report which will have their findings, suggestions, and pictures.
We tell our clients to not be discouraged by the list your inspector provides you with, as there is something to find in every home. These may be called “defects” and the inspector may suggest a professional to fix the defect. No home is perfect. Once the inspection is complete, we will review the report and list of items and may approach the seller to re-negotiate for a credit, repair, or lowered purchase price. We will be with you every step of the way, as we know this part of the process can be daunting.
What should a seller do to prepare for a home inspection?
The buyers will schedule an inspection on your home within 7 business days of their offer being accepted. The home inspection is typically a private inspection between the buyers, Realtor, and the home inspector so you cannot be at the home during it.
To prep for the home inspection, make sure all mechanicals, electrical panels, attic, basement and garage walls are visible. If a radon test is placed in your basement, that test runs for 48 hours and all windows must be kept closed. Inspection reports are not shared in full with the seller, but any inspection requests should be demonstrated through report excerpts. We will renegotiate post-inspection; buyers may propose repairs or a credit for inspection requests.
What does it mean to waive a home inspection?
Normally when you make an offer, you have two contingencies – the home inspection and the mortgage contingency. If you waive that home inspection, you have no knowledge of the home (except for things that the sellers reported on the property disclosures). Personally, I don’t like advising my clients to waive a home inspection, but I have had some do it over the years, but I don’t think it’s the best idea. If you waive a home inspection and go to the final walk-through on closing day and see an issue, you would have found out about that issue potentially during the home inspection. And now you don’t have the right to say that this is a concern because you waived the right to an inspection. I wouldn’t advise my clients to waive an inspection.
Have any of your buyers backed out of a home inspection after seeing the report?
Home inspectors usually have a waiver in their report that they’re doing a visual inspection. They can’t catch everything. On one of my team member’s deals, the inspection went fine, but there were a bunch of boxes pushed up against a wall. When her buyers got there on closing day, there was a huge mold problem that wasn’t visible during the inspection because the boxes “hid” that.
Out of 450 deals or so, I’ve had 1 or 2 clients back out after the home inspection, because it either put them out of their general comfort or it financially didn’t make sense to proceed. I had a deal recently where too many items came up during the home inspection, like mold in the attic and basement, a crack in the basement, there was sloping up the back patio, water issues in the basement. There ended up being just too many items my clients didn’t feel comfortable with and didn’t feel like it was worth it financially and emotionally to repair them all or ask for a credit.
Have any home inspection reports ever come back squeaky clean with no items to be fixed?
No, I’ve never had a home inspection list come back squeaky clean. There’s always something. If a home inspector doesn’t find anything – even like a trim board not being attached, a window missing a lock, a crack in the foundation – they’re not a good inspector.
Even new construction have things that come up, and with new construction homes it’s usually more of a punch list, like the builder forgot to do this, didn’t complete that, or missed installing something.
What do you look for in a home inspector?
When you’re using a general home inspector, they will usually have disclosures in their packet that they cannot see everything. I had an inspector who missed a ton of mold, but he was very good with structural issues. Every inspector is different, but their base line goal is to find anything immediately wrong with the home or find things that are not up to code.
It can be a risk for us as agents to recommend someone who we know does a poor job or will miss problems at the inspection, and after being in the business for 15 years, I have worked with my fair share of home inspectors!
I have a few that I absolutely adore and would recommend very confidently, and the reason I like them is that because are detail-oriented and will find any issues with the house but they are not alarmists. There are some inspectors who will find things and make a big deal out of the smallest little problem… like, your bathroom sink is leaking and this could travel to the basement and cause mold… let’s back up a minute! The bathroom sink might be leaking but that can be easily fixed. It’s a small, contained area where you can look more in-depth to see any problems.
There are some inspectors that I’ve seen, where I’ve represented the seller, and the list comes back with things that just aren’t a big deal. Such as, outlets needing a GFCI outlet. Those are less than $100 at Home Depot, which you can do yourself or have an electrician do. There’s no reason to alarm a buyer to a certain extent where the deal may fall apart, when there are easy fixes to many of these issues I’ve seen at home inspections.
For our list of trusted home inspectors, check out our concierge page!