Home Inspections

Once your offer has been submitted, we recommend tentatively scheduling inspections if you’ve chosen to conduct your own. We will know the general timeframe during which inspections should occur in advance since it was included as part of your purchase agreement. During the peak real estate season, inspectors can book up quickly, so it is best to get on their calendar and have to cancel versus not being able to meet your property contingency deadline or having to desperately shop around for vendors who can meet the impending deadlines.

At the point where your offer is accepted and the transaction enters the contingency phase, one of your primary objectives is to ensure you have all the necessary information about the property you intend to purchase. Inspections play a vital part of this due diligence. It is especially prudent to conduct your own inspections if the seller has chosen to forego inspections before putting their property on the market. The most common inspections for residential properties are:

• Property
• Termite/pest
• Roof
• Chimney

For a more in-depth look into each of these types of inspection, click here.

Depending upon the property or what the basic inspections listed above uncover, there are other types of inspections that might be appropriate. They are:

• Mold inspections
• Furnace inspections (done by electricity provider)
• Foundation inspections
• Drainage inspections
• Septic systems
• Swimming pool inspection
• Solar inspections

If you choose to conduct one or more inspections, the cost will be yours to pay. Often, you can pay these fees in escrow, but most vendors prefer to be paid at the time of service and will incentivize you to do so by offering a discount. A property inspection will cost about $600-$1000, depending upon the size of the home and whether there are any detached buildings. A termite inspection runs around $400-$600, again this is square footage dependent. The Dawn Thomas Team can provide the contact information for reliable inspectors if you need recommendations.

Although these are out-of-pocket costs, you should consider how much money you could potentially save should any of these inspections uncover a significant problem of which you were previously unaware. If new issues are discovered, we can go back and negotiate repairs, renegotiate the offer price, or if the issue will cause ongoing stress and expense, you can retract your offer without losing your earnest money deposit

Now that we have determined which inspections are needed and have them tentatively scheduled, let’s discuss in detail what happens when your offer is accepted and we enter into the contract phase.