Home Inspections FAQ

Who Needs a Home Inspection and Why?

Home Buyers:

A home inspection can help you discover wear, maintenance or safety issues that you are not even aware of. This may help increase your bargaining power and make you more aware of potential repair or safety issues, maintenance issues, aging mechanicals etc.

The home buyer is the more common home inspection client.  A qualified home inspector could look all day, maybe even for days and not find every nuance in a home.  Some issues will only manifest with certain weather or other conditions.  We have performed home inspections during excessively wet conditions and found storm water streaming and on occasion even spraying into the basement.  However, during dry conditions, the only evidence of leakage may be staining or efflorescence (a mineral deposit) on the foundation walls.

Home Sellers:

A “pre-listing” home inspection can help bring wear, maintenance or safety issues to light before a potential buyer does. This may cost you in repair costs, but could save you from giving a prospective buyer the upper hand with future negotiation.

Home Owners:

A home inspection can help protect your investment by discovering wear, maintenance or safety issues you are not aware of. This will allow you to fix the problems before more damage is done.  Since you are already living in the home it is easy to grow accustomed to issues as they likely developed gradually.  It is also easy to lose track of time i.e. before you know it the furnace or water heater is 15 to 20 years old, but it seems like it is only 5 to 10 years old.