A home inspection is an important part of purchasing a home. No one wants to buy a money pit, so it is best to know what issues a home has before you buy it. The problem with home inspections in a crazy seller’s market like we are experiencing right now is sellers don’t want you to have them. Is this because they are worried about what you will find in their home? Maybe, but mostly they just want to know that you will be sticking with your offer of purchasing the home and they can count on it.
What about the contingencies?
In a regular market there are usually several contingencies that a buyer will have on their contract to protect them and their interests such as a financing contingency, review time period of the seller disclosure, and the inspection contingency. In today’s market a seller of a desirable home will look for an offer with as few contingencies as possible, and most would prefer an offer with no contingencies. This can be very scary for buyers. How does a buyer protect themselves when considering making an offer on a home that will be hoping for no contingencies?
What’s the solution?
When it comes to the home inspections the best option is to do a pre-inspection. What this means is doing an inspection before making an offer on the property so you will be confident when waiving your inspection contingency. Most listing (seller’s) agents will allow two hours prior to the offer review date for a home inspection to be conducted. This is not always an ideal situation because you may not have your offer chosen, and then you are out the money you spent on the home inspection. Many buyers in this market must make several offers on homes before their offer is chosen, so to be out approximately $500 per inspection is difficult.
Unbalanced markets are difficult and unfair. Buyers in today’s market must make lots of decisions with very little information. We can only expect this to change when the pendulum swings more to a balanced market where it is acceptable for buyers to keep some of their contingencies. Until then, I suggest the pre-inspection!
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