The process of shopping for a new home can be a lot of fun. Once you find the one you want, make an offer, and have that offer accepted the real work of home buying begins. One of your duties will be to do some detective work so that you will know more about the home. This is where a home inspection enters the picture.
Some home buyers assume that the home inspection report will reveal few, if any, problems with the home. They may have already decided to skip the home inspection process all together. When touring the home it may have appeared to be in perfect condition, so why assume otherwise? The home through the eyes of the buyer will be quite different than the perspective of the home inspector. The inspector will not be thinking about color schemes, size of the home, layout, or whether or not the couch and bed will fit.Once a buyer falls in love with a home they often lose their ability to see it from a critical perspective. This is one of the reasons that real estate inspection is crucial. Home inspectors are specifically trained to perform an extensive evaluation of the home and deliver the bad news about the house if need be. Plan to hear that the home is indeed not perfect, and prepare yourself for the possibility of the existence of major problems.
After you receive the home inspection report, panic may set in. Take a deep breath, relax, and know that there is no home that cannot be repaired if you throw enough money at it. The question then will be, who is going to pay for the repairs? In most cases, the report will not change your love for the home, but can change economic factors.
The following questions will need to be asked and answered honestly:
- How badly do you want to purchase this home?
- Will the seller cover the cost of some (or all) of the repairs? Likely, if there are health and safety issues uncovered, the seller may agree to fix these.
- Are you willing to pay for some of the repairs?
- Can you afford to make repairs if the seller will not cooperate?
- Is the home value worth the extra costs of repairs? Take the value of the comps in the area, taken from Zillow, Trulia or similar websites, and ask your home inspector to provide a loose approximation of your home's repair costs. Simple math will tell you if it is a good idea to proceed with the home purchase.
There are times in which the economics of the deal simply cannot be worked out and the buyer must walk away. Some decide to do so simply because they have too many concerns about the condition of the home. The information contained in your home inspection report can help, but should not be the only thing you rely on to make such a major decision. When you think of home buying in terms of only economics, most of the emotional factor can be eliminated or at least put into perspective.
Consider how you may feel in the future. If you purchase the home and then find that it is a source of worry and constant concern, even a price tag at 20% below market will not seem like such a good deal. Alternately, if you truly love the home, you may pay far more than it's worth and be completely happy. The real estate inspection report will not change your reasons for wanting the house, only the economic details surrounding the purchase.
