On Saturday I did a visual agent inspection at a home our clients are buying. Normally, Leslie does the agent visual inspection, but she was a bit under the weather, so I did it.  Standing in the shower (where I do a lot of my thinking!) this morning, I reflected it’s good for potential home buyers to understand what a home inspection is all about and the ramifications about stuff an inspector finds (and trust me, they do).

So, what’s a home inspection, why do Leslie and I always insist our buyers pay $ for it, how does a home inspection fit into the big scheme of buying a home, does the seller have to fix all the discovered issues, etc?

First, the primary thing to keep in mind is that a buyer is buying their home “as is”; that includes the leaky roof, poor foundation, termites, frayed electrical wires, bad pipes – everything!

Second, everything must be disclosed to the buyer by the seller. Realtors use a form they give their sellers to fill out called a Transfer Disclosure Statement (and some others) that the seller can use to give an accurate condition of the home.

Sellers have sometimes asked us if they should mention a certain issue about their home. Our standard reply is: “If in doubt, disclose”. Our mantra is: Disclose, disclose, disclose. I also often flip the question to our sellers: “If you were moving to an entirely new region of the country, didn’t know anything about that area, would you want to know that”?

On the last page of that Transfer Disclosure Statement, both the listing agent and the selling agent have to do their own visual inspection of the property looking for “red flags”. What’s a “red flag”? That topic has been debated and analyzed for years, but for me, here’s a specific example:

I went into a hillside bank owned REO a month or two ago and immediately noticed cracks in the drywall around windows and doors. A closer look revealed more signs of possible foundation issues. That to me was a “red flag” I’d definitely tell my buyers.

But a home inspector will methodically inspect the electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems. Go under the home (if it’s a raised foundation) to inspect the framing, and take a hard look in all the nooks and crannies. Note that they won’t move stuff, for example stuff that’s jammed into a garage or move furniture to inspect behind that furniture. But their inspection will be pretty thorough.

So now you’ve got your report – what do you do with it?

We generally recommend that any health and safety issues be corrected by the seller. In Saturday’s home inspection, the inspector discovered that 2 electrical outlets on either side of the kitchen sink weren’t GFI’d (shock hazard). I recommended they request the seller have an electrician correct that safety issue.

But the inspector also noted that one of the french doors leading out to the patio deck had a crack in the door (about 18″ long). Not a big crack mind you, but still, a crack. That crack has probably been there for years, but who knows? Maybe the seller didn’t even KNOW the crack was there (how well do you know YOUR home?!?). Should our buyers request that the sellers fix that? It’s not a health or safety issue.

This is how the system works:

• The sellers get a copy of the inspector’s report
• The buyers request certain issues get fixed or repaired
• The seller can agree to all the issues, some of the issues, or none of the issues
• If the seller agrees to fix all the issues, the buyer is obviously happy and escrow continues to closing
• If the seller agrees to only fix some or none of the issues, the buyer can accept that decision & escrow continues to closing.
• Or, if the buyer isn’t happy with the seller’s decision, the only recourse the buyer has is to back out of the deal.

A home inspection report is not intended to be used as a negotiating tool to reduce the price of the home. It’s purpose is to give the buyer a complete understanding of the physical condition of the home.

So as you can see, the request for repairs should not be taken lightly by either buyer or seller. There’s a lot riding on it emotionally and financially for both parties!