What to Ask A Home Inspector

Home inspections are a critical part of the home buying process. Don’t skimp out here. Inspectors are now marketing directly to buyers trying to get more business. Here are some questions to ask a home inspector prior to hiring them. HUD (Housing Urban Development) finds it so important they have a list of questions you can use. The Feds believe it is so important that when you get a loan from them there is a whole page as to why you should get an inspection. Here are my thoughts.
Prior to hiring:
1- How much does it cost? Let’s just get this out of the way. Simple enough most are around $300 bucks however depending on the extras the price goes up. Extras Rich? Yes, well, water and so on. If your home is larger than there can be additional fees as well.
2- Can I attend the inspection? Most inspectors cringe here and ask that you join them at the end of it. I say if you want to be there with the inspector and crawl the attic and crawl spaces have at it. If not then meet them there and go over the findings.
3- Are you insured and what does it cover? Follow up with if something pops up that should have been caught what remedies do you offer? Some have insurance for this; some offer a warranty, others you get the fee back you paid.
4- How have you been trained, what kind of experience do you have? How many inspections have you performed in the last year? Ask to see their last report, look for buzz words, see below. These are great qualifying questions.
5- Look at the report, what are major areas of concern? How easily can these be indentified? Some inspectors say all the window seals have failed (Buzz Word), rather than a particular window has moisture, sweating or fogging. Seals fail, is there water? Apparent break in attempt (buzz buzz) rather than door is damaged where lock is. Is there a police report or did the previous person forget their keys. My all time favorite? MOLD ooh, mold can be everywhere in all homes. Some mold is the bad kind; some is not and has been there for years.
6- How bad is it… really? A good home inspector should be able to discuss the report with you and offer insight on to how bad the damage could be. If they say you need to hire a specialist for everything they noted why hire them to begin with.
Of course you could ask your Realtor for a recommendation. Chances are they know a couple of good ones. All the Best Richie Rich



Leave a Reply


WordPress.com Logo


Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: