For most home buyers, having an inspection performed by a licensed inspector is a “no brainer”. This is especially true if you don’t have a BIG comfort zone when it comes to home construction! The cost generally runs somewhere around $450. Now, that may seem like $450 extra you don’t have as you’re getting ready to come up with your down payment and closing costs, not to mention moving expenses and getting your new home set up. But, if the inspection points up a major defect you’re not aware of, I guess I’d rather know that in advance rather than 3-6 months down the road. So, I find most buyers benefit from having an inspection done, and it’s well worth the money.
Once that’s been decided, the next question is should the buyer attend the home inspection or skip it? Like everything else in life, there are pros and cons. Here are my thoughts on the topic:
PROS
- Basically you’ll learn a lot about your future home.
- You’ll learn where the electrical panel and main shut off valves are.
- You’ll learn some things about how to maintain parts of your home that maybe you wouldn’t otherwise have been aware of.
- You’ll get the inspector’s perspective on the significance of blemishes ( of which there will likely be many- dozens even, on average).
CONS
- The process will take a half day of your time, on a work day.
- It’s boring. It’s a lot of standing around checking emails and Facebook while the inspector crawls through the attic and crawl space, test electrical outlets and water faucets.
- It causes you to focus strictly on what’s wrong with the house. Because of this, some lose sight of why they wanted to buy the house in the first place. And with all the focus on what’s wrong it’s easy to lose perspective about the blemishes. After all, we all accept blemishes in our homes, and when we go to sell there will be a list of blemishes the next inspector will find. Heck, many of the ones on your inspection report will still be there when you go to sell.
- And besides, within 24 hours you’re going to get a comprehensive report complete with colored photos detailing everything the inspector finds.
In the end, it’s entirely up to you. There’s no harm or foul either way. And it’s not a life or death question. Personally, I find a good compromise is to attend the last half hour of the inspection. This is what our friends at US Inspect recommend for experienced home buyers. It allows you to take a look and hear what the inspector has to say about the house in general and about key issues. That may make it easier for us to talk about the findings and to come up with a strategy to deal with those key issues.
For answers to all your real estate questions, give Indy’s Choice a call at (317) 625-0655.
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