The Upside & Downside of Home Inspections

I was sitting in a Board of Directors meeting this past week reviewing a new addendum form to approve for our Association to use for the inspection contingency in a purchase and sale offer. There was considerable discussion as to whether the buyer should have to indicate who they were selecting to do the inspection, whether it was Uncle Harry, a licensed home inspector, an engineer, a builder, etc. After all the discussion, the final decision by the Directors was the buyer did not have to disclose who they were choosing to do the home inspection for them on the addendum form.

The reason there was so much discussion around this rather simple item, was because of the experience all of us have had the past several years with home inspections. There are the home inspections that the buyer has their Uncle Harry do for them and he either talks about the selling price and everything else except the house or he finds fault with everything in the house.

Then we have the inspections done by a builder that compares everything to a new home and nothing is to code in the older home.

It seems that features that are characteristic of an older home are overlooked during the initial visit or even second visit, but with the home inspector, suddenly they aren’t acceptable. And even though the buyer may have negotiated off the sales price to address them after he buys the house, they ping the seller again with the list of repairs and ask for a credit at closing from the home inspection.

Inspections can and are an escape route for a buyer, plain and simple. If they want out of the deal after signing, the home inspection provides the door to escape. That’s the way it is and there is no changing it!

Home inspections are part of the process now and they are here to stay with the upside and downside they bring to the home buying process!