The home-purchasing process is long and exhausting. You regularly go through months looking for the right home before you make an offer and when a deal is made and acknowledged, you should complete a few more tasks before the deal closes. A significant part of buying your home is the home inspection where an expert ensures everything in the house is working properly and look for stuff that requires repairs. As the buyer, you are required to pay the expense of home inspection but you can generally wave the right to a home inspection, but skipping this process is not a sound decision. You should make a home inspection a mandatory part of your home-buying journey.
Here are reasons why you shouldn’t skip a home inspection.
1. Unforeseen and unpredicted problems
A house may look fantastic, but it can also have serious structural or technical problems with wiring, roofing, HVAC, plumbing, and more. A quality home inspection can provide important information about the condition of the home and its systems. This will give the buyer advanced information on the costs, repairs, and maintenance a home may require. If you are not satisfied with the overall result of the test, you have one last chance to withdraw from the offer and secure a way out.
2. Discover safety issues
A home inspection can reveal the presence of pollutants such as radon, carbon monoxide, and mold. Uncover these hazards before your home is officially yours. You don’t want an unpleasant surprise when it’s too late.
3. Plan for Future Expenses
Buying a home brings with it many new responsibilities, including maintaining the house and appliances. A home inspector can determine the approximate age of installation of basic systems in the home such as plumbing, heating, and cooling, and essential equipment such as water heaters so you can plan for future expenses accordingly.
4. It can be used as an effective negotiating tool
A home inspection report gives you a real way to request repairs or price reductions from the seller. Most home inspections will reveal several problems. If the issue is minor enough to make you interested in buying the home as is, you can use it as a bargaining chip to renegotiate the price of the house. Work with your broker to find out what requests can and should be made to negotiate a better deal.
5. It is inexpensive
Opposite to what most people think, home inspections don’t cost a lot of money. Most home inspections cost $300 to $600, depending on the size of the home. Given that a home is a big investment, this small amount of money is well worth it to help you make important decisions.
A home inspection will help you understand the implications of what may be the biggest purchase of your life, and it is your responsibility to learn as much detail as possible about the property you will soon call home.
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