A home is arguably the most expensive and important purchase you’ll make in your life. Home inspections are an incredibly important step in this process to ensure you’re making a good investment. A home inspector’s services will run you a few hundred dollars, but it’s well-worth it since catching problems before you close on the home can save you a lot of money in the long run. Here are 5 questions to ask your home inspector to ensure you get the most out of your inspection.
1. What are your qualifications?
Reach out to a couple or several inspectors in your area and ask them to provide their length of experience, whether they are working full- or part-time, and what training or certifications they have completed. Finding the right inspector is important; you want someone with a good reputation and plenty of experience in your area or the type of home you are looking to purchase.
2. What needs to be taken care of right away?
While some issues that crop up can be categorized as normal wear and tear, others may be more serious or urgent due to health or safety risks. There may also be issues that may cause expensive damage to the home over time if not addressed early enough. The inspection report may come back and be extremely long and technical, so while you should read all of it in detail, you may still want to ask your inspector for a quick run-down of what the top issues of concern are that you should pay attention to so you can address those first before or soon after you move in.
3. What should the sellers pay for?
Certain issues that come up in the home inspection might provide enough recourse to ask the sellers for a price reduction in order to cover the cost of repairs. For example, if the roof needs to be fixed or a new roof is needed – a huge expense – you may be able to ask the sellers to reduce the price of the home to account for that.
4. Do I need to call an expert?
Home inspectors typically have general knowledge of homes and how they work. But when it comes to specific issues, while they might be able to discern something is not right, they will not know as much as an expert when it comes to how to fix it or what’s involved. For some issues, such as electrical and plumbing, your home inspector can only tell you so much – after that point you may need to gather more information from another professional or specialist.
5. How do I maintain this?
Home inspectors are not just great at picking up issues in your home, they generally know how a lot of parts of a home work. Aside from things that need repair, your home inspection is a great opportunity to ask your inspector how to operate and care for things in the home that you might not know about, like your HVAC system or hot water tank.
If possible, you should attend your home inspection so that you can ask many of these questions in person. It’s also much easier to understand what is going on with the house when your inspector is showing it to you than having to read it in the report later.
Hopefully, these tips help you get the most out of your home inspection so that you can worry less and enjoy the excitement of buying your new home. If you’re looking to purchase a home in the Okanagan, don’t hesitate to contact us! Our team would be happy to assist with any questions you might have. Call us today at 250-864-HOME (4663) or take a look at our featured listings to find your dream home in the Okanagan!
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