Are Home Inspections Required To Buy A House?
Question: Are home inspections a requirement to buy a house? How do I know if I need a home inspection, and what are the benefits of getting a home inspection before buying a house?
Answer: Home inspections are not required to purchase a home, but it is strongly recommend to get a credible home inspector to inspect the property before purchasing it. Home inspections can save you thousands of dollars in unexpected repairs and problems, and the home inspection report is also extremely useful when negotiating the selling price of a home to a seller of a property that needs repairs.
The price of a home inspection is relatively cheap when you consider how large of a financial commitment purchasing a home is, so save yourself the headaches and get yourself a home inspection done by a professional home inspector.
My Realtor told me I have to get an inspection done before I buy the house I’m looking at… is this true?
I didn’t get a home inspection when I bought my house…
Then again, I’m a licensed contractor so I didn’t need a general home inspector.
Interesting comment GC. Every week my company does home inspections on new homes in the San Diego area. I can tell you that even with new homes is not uncommon to find a handful of building oversights, shortcuts, etc. that somehow slip through the cracks and don’t get picked up during final inspection. I guess it’s also important to keep in mind that building inspectors spend very little time inspected a building while it’s been built. I was a contractor for the better part of 20 years I can tell you that when the building inspectors arrived at my job sites, most of them were my buddies at about all we did was sit around and talk about football, golf, and where we were planning on going for our summer vacation. Granted, they did sort of inspect the house and were quick point out any glaring deficiencies that they found. They never did anything like spend 3 to 4 hours examining every system and component of the home from rooftop to foundation that you will find in a typical home inspection.