Importance of Home Inspection Contingency

Before you buy a home, one of the things you should do is to have it checked out by a professional home inspector. Yes, we can hear your objection: “Buying a home is expensive enough as it is! Why would I choose to fork over hundreds more if I’m not required to?” Home inspections are used to provide an opportunity for a buyer to identify any major issues with a home prior to closing. Your first clue that a home inspection is important is that it can be used as a contingency in your contract with the seller. This contingency provides that if significant defects are revealed by a home inspection, you can back out of your purchase offer, free of penalty, within a certain timeframe. The potential problems a home can have must be pretty serious if they could allow you to walk away from such a significant contract.

What a Home Inspection Covers
Inspectors vary in experience, ability, and thoroughness, but a good inspector should examine certain components of the home and then produce a report covering his or her findings. A really good inspector will even tell you about routine maintenance that should be performed, which can be a great help if you are a first-time homebuyer.

After the Inspection
Once you have the results of your home inspection, you have several options. For problems large or small, you can ask the seller to fix them, reduce the purchase price, or to give you a cash credit at closing to fix the problems yourself. This is where a home inspection can pay for itself several times over. If these options aren’t viable in your situation (for example, if the property is bank-owned and/or being sold as-is), you can get estimates to fix the problems yourself and come up with a plan for repairs in order of their importance and affordability once you own the property.

If the problems are too significant or too expensive to fix, you can choose to walk away from the purchase, as long as the purchase contract has an inspection contingency.

The Bottom Line
A home inspection will cost you a little bit of time and money, but in the long run, you’ll be glad you did it. The inspection can reveal problems that you may be able to get the current owners to fix before you move in – or else, prevent you from inadvertently buying a money pit. For new home construction, it’s an imperative part of the home buying process. If you are a first-time homebuyer, an inspection can give you a crash course in home maintenance and a checklist of items that need attention to make your home as safe and sound as possible. Whatever the situation, addressing issues early through a home inspection can save you tens of thousands of dollars down the road.

CREDIT: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/mortgages-real-estate/08/home-inspection.asp