Home Buying Tips

Inspection Procedures

Once your offer on a property is negotiated and accepted you have a "good-faith" duty to comply with the terms of the contract including meeting deadlines.

One of the first major deadlines you will have is the inspection deadline. By a predetermined date stated in the contract, you'll have the right to hire an independent inspector to evaluate the home you are about to purchase. You may hire anyone to act as the inspector, or even do the inspection yourself, but it's recommended you hire a professional home inspector.

The inspection typically takes 3-4 hours and will cost you around $350 on average, which you pay at the time of the inspection--it is not part of your closing costs. You will receive from the inspector an inspection report and based on the report, we may prepare an inspection notice to present to the seller / seller's agent.

The inspection is suppose to uncover existing or potential safety hazards as well as point out routine maintenance and maybe cosmetic issues and concerns of the home. If you decide that in order to continue with the purchase there are some issues that must be addressed, then that's when an inspection notice is completed and negotiated.

The seller will be able to agree to some or all of the requests in the inspection notice, reject all or some of them, or offer alternate resolutions. As the buyer, you may decide at this point to walk away from the purchase or come to an agreement with the seller.

It helps to have an experienced Realtor® assist you with the inspection notice, but just like the purchase offer, the ultimate decision will be yours to make.

Step 7: The Closing...