Looking for the Right House---The Inspection

The inspection was conducted yesterday. This is a completely optional thing for the buyer to do, hire an inspector to go to the prospective house they are buying or wanting to buy and have an inspection done. This is recommended to do by the realtor for at least the water to be tested as a standard.

They can also recommend that you have a general overall house inspection done.

 

Why?

 

Well this lets you know what you are getting into. Yes, the seller is obligated by most laws to reveal all the issues or problems or whatnot, but often, the seller may not even be aware of issues or they feel it is perfectly fine and yet, it is not up to code or standards or whatever.

 

As this particular house was built in the late '70s that we are looking to buy, it definitely needed to be looked at. The typical house inspection, general, is $350.00. When you start to add on other things like water, radon, a garage, etc, it does add up very quickly.

 

The problem with this that I see, is that the buyer puts out this money for the inspection to be done and if this uncovers major items that need immediate attention, the buyers may opt out from buying the home altogether, especially if it is too expensive. They don't get that money they spent on the inspection back, however they would get their earnest money they put down.

 

Typically, the contract the sellers and buyers sign, has a date on it and it's 14 business days for the inspection to be done and the buyers to make a determination if there are any big concerns or if they wish to renegotiate the price or have the seller fix it, or walk away from the deal.

 

The inspection is NOT the appraisal. So the inspection is only viewed by yourself--the buyer and the realtor and of course the inspector themselves. Your lender doesn't see it, the sellers do not see it, no one else does but you as you are the one who paid for it. IF the seller were to have it, and the buyer (you) walked away from the deal, the seller then would have to disclose that information, by law, to the next potential buyers.

 

So this inspection we had set up was conducted yesterday morning at lunch time. 3 people went in along with the realtor and they went over both the house and garage in great detail, taking a lot of pictures! This team was excellent! They even had thermal imaging cameras and shared details of what they found, pictures of it and they also gave us a lot of information on how to repair certain items or links to more information or videos that were very educational. It was well worth the money spent.

 

The inspectors will email you the report and in the body of the email, these inspectors highlighted the items that they felt were of a higher priority. There was a full report linked for a pdf file as well as a summary of the report as well. Very professional, very well done. I was highly impressed.

 

Right out of the gate, they tell you to try to not be overwhelmed. Wow, that's an understatement. They found a lot of items that definitely needs addressing and tending to. A lot of tlc. There wasn't anything that was a huge deal, there were some items that we knew about, many we did not, and some things we have plans to take care of anyway. At first, seeing this huge long list and pictures and recommendations and all that, we wanted to back out. It was just sounding like a money pit and too expensive to have to fix up everything. Thoughts of the UTV or all the fun toys we wanted to get, went right out the window as other priorities came to mind instead.

 

So after talking about it for a while, I slept on it and in the morning, it felt better. I looked around at other properties I had saved and did comparisons in not only price, but taxes as well and the look of the land and location. I have to say, I just couldn't see any place better really, even with all the issues!

 

I wrote an email to the inspectors and the realtor with a few questions and comments and thank yous for the inspection report. The inspector called me back and we chatted for a while as she talked over my concerns and gave me a few ideas on how to handle a few items. That made me feel better and as we calmed, I began to see that a lot of things were small nitnoid items really. There are a few big things but nothing that major. Then I spoke to the realtor who also gave me his opinion. Now granted of course his opinion is that he will want us to buy the place and pay what we had negotiated for as he is getting commission on it, but his thoughts and solutions to some of the items made sense and did not feel nor sound like it was blowing smoke.

 

I know we have a lot of plans for this particular property and in the end, its the taxes that says it all. That is what will remain forever and they won't go down, they will only continue to go up. Plus, we do have friends and we can get help for what we need and nothing says we have to take it all on at once. We plan on being there for many years and as such, we can take our time and do things one project at a time. So we will have to make a list of what we want done and slowly work on that, item by item, prioritizing as to what is the most important to get done. At least now we have a full inspection report that details it all out and also where and if we have any issues or need help in figuring out what is meant or location, we can always call the inspectors to ask. That is very nice.

 

Now that we are calmed again and back on track, we have pretty much decided to proceed forward. I don't want to ask the elderly couple to do anything because some of the things that had been done were just quickly done and not installed professionally. Case in point was a woodstove in the garage that look like it was hillbillied with a beer barrel. Don't ask! But no it doesn't make moonshine! ;)

We would rather see to any repairs or modifications or changes ourselves. This is because I am not going to nickel and dime this couple like what had happened to us in Texas. Plus, if I hire someone to do work there, I will know it is getting done right and I will learn something as I usually watch what they do and pick up tidbits of information from them. And, this way, I get to know the tradesmen in case I need to call them back out and they are familiar with me. :)

 

Next up is the appraisal. Our realtor has not heard from anyone yet.
The bank did call today, they did get the disclosure packet all signed and our processor looked it over and it looked fine but now it is sent on to the inspector team there who look it over to be sure they have all the right documents and if not, they will notify us so we can send in whatever is needed.

 

That's where we stand today.