Why you should get an Inspection

Whether you are buying a single family home with no sale conditions, or a bank owned or auction home, you should always have a professional home inspection performed.

A complete home inspection will look at the systems that make up the dwelling such as:

• Structural elements, foundation, framing etc
• Plumbing systems -water pressure, evidence of leaks, problems with drains
• Roofing -visible signs of improper installation, cracked tiles, missing shingles 
• Electrical systems - per code at time of construction or upon major remodeling 
• Smoke detectors -operation and properly located
• Water heater strapping per local and state code
• Garage door opener- operation and safety of installation
• Cosmetic condition, paint, siding etc

If you are buying a new or re-sale home, you need to know the condition of the home that you are getting. A total home inspection, as performed by a professional ASHI- CREIA rated home inspector, will reveal any hidden problems with the home so that they may be considered BEFORE the inspection contingency is released. Your Realtor should arrange for any inspections at the time you make a formal offer depending upon which inspections you tell them you wish to make. Ensure that the contract has an inspection contingency, in Solano county it is normally 17 days, in some cases such as auctions you must make any inspections you wish to conduct, before you make an offer, your agent can make all the arrangements and guide you through the process. Then, hire your own inspector and pay close attention to the inspection report, it is a cost, but could save you thousands or more dollars in the future if the inspector finds a serious issue with the property. Banks will not usually cure problems that you find so make sure you structure your purchase offer in accordance to any anticipated costs to cure the serious issues. If you aren't comfortable with what he finds, you should kill the deal, request for repairs, or make an adjustment in your offer price. Remember, if you are using a CAR contract, the seller does not have to respond to your repair requests or comply with your requests unless they deem they are reasonable requests, if it is an as-is bank owned or short sale, you should still get inspections so you can decide if you want to go forward with the sale or cancel the transaction during the inspection period.

Likewise, if you are selling a home, you want to know about such potential hidden problems before your house goes on the market. Almost all contracts include the condition that the contract is contingent upon completion of a satisfactory inspection. And most buyer's are going to insist that the inspection be a professional home inspection, usually by an inspector they hire. If the buyer's inspector finds a problem, it can cause the buyer to get cold feet and the deal can often fall through. At best, surprise problems uncovered by the buyer's inspector will cause delays in closing, and usually you will have to pay for repairs at the last minute, or take a lower price on your home. You can restrict the amount of any anticipated repair requests in your counter response to their offer, talk to your Realtor about this when considering their initial offer.

It's better to pay for your own inspection before putting your home on the market. Remember that you are morally responsible to report any averse conditions you discover in this inpsection. Find out about any hidden problems and correct them in advance. Otherwise, you can count on the buyer's inspector finding them, at the worst possible time, after you have an agreed upon sales price. Your house could go back onto the market at the most in-oportune time, when you have already made a commitment on your home going forward..

As a buyer, you always have the right to get inspections, you may not always have the right to request repairs be done according to the reports if it is an as-is sale you are getting the reports done so you will understand the condtion of the home you are purchasing and know what you face if you buy that home. In most cases, the report is very helpful for making a list of maintenance items and how the customary appliances and systems in your home operate, where the filters are, how they are accessed and what your water pressure may be.

It is also useful for your home warranty company to know that the item you are calling them about worked perfectly when you bought the home and now it is not operating. Keep your report, it contains other helpful information and is well worth the investment of time and money.

You can have specialized roof, fireplace, chimney, pest, swimming pool, spa and other types of inspections done, just ask your Realtor for information on local companies that are licensed and bonded for these types of inspections.

Pest inspections are not reports of how many ants are in a home, in fact they do not even report the presence of ants, the pests they are looking for are mainly termites or wood destroying bugs, evidence of water damage, or conditions that may contribute to these invasions of the integrity of your future home. They issue a report and are licensed by the state of California, having the pest inspection company do the recomended work is up to your discretion, you can hire others to do most of the repairs outlined in the pest report, but the pest inspector himself must be called to return during de-construction and then upon completion of any work done. They then issue a completed report denoting the work has been completed.

Remember that the pest inspector company does not paint their work due to that not being a part of their work, just the structural part of the repair, be prepared to hire a painter or do it yourself.

Paint can easily be matched by cutting off a sample of the original paint and bringing it to Lowe's, Home Depot, Kelly Moore or Pacific Hardware, they all have paint matching computers to help match the hue and then it's up to you to make sure you get the right sheen, glossy, matte or satin? -Barbara Adams, Realtor