Own your home? I have a question

Posted by Puzzleheaded_Bag9063@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 22 comments

We just went under contract on a house and scheduled our inspection for Saturday. I owned a condo previously and went into the experience complete blind to all of the stuff I didn’t know. The inspector just kind of looked under the hood and signed off. Later I found a ton of stuff that wasn’t quite right, (pipes taped together, the electrical panel painted over and when I got it open it was out of code and installed upside down). So going into inspection the second time I know more about homeownership but a one bedroom, one bath condo is VERY different than a 5 bed, 2 bath house. I’m using an inspector that my real estate agent recommended. She came highly recommended and has fully exceeded all of my expectations. I expect that the inspector she recommended will be equally impressive. What can I do to get the most out of my inspection? I want to suck as much knowledge about the house out of this inspection as I can. What should I look for? What can I ask the inspector? What should I bring that I might need? (I’m thinking a notepad and a list of questions but maybe there’s more) Hoping the years of homeownership experience in here will help me maximize the inspection experience.

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MyKidsArentOnReddit@reddit

I've probably bought and sold more houses than most people. I also work in construction so I've built houses and had inspectors inspect my work too so I've seen this from multiple sides. Now, I hate to say this, but the inspector your realtor recommends might not necessarily be the best one. The realtor's incentive is to get the deal closed. If the inspector is too alarmist, the buyer gets scared off and the realtor stops recommending that inspector. Now the realtor's rec does mean this person will have experience in this area (inspecting 100 year old homes is very different than 50 year old homes which is very different from new builds), so it's not all bad, but it's something to consider. Also there are standards and procedures (which vary by state) that an inspector should be following - you can ask them in advance about that. You can ask for a sample report if you want too - that should show you what the inspectors looks at. The thing to remember about inspectors is that they're generalists. They're not plumbers, electricians, or roofers. However they should be able to tell you when to call a plumber, electrician, or roofer. Make the inspection early in the window. That way if there's something you want an expert opinion on you have time to get someone else in. The other thing is that the inspector sees only problems, but the specialist is trained to solve those problems (and give you a price). Be with the inspector so you know what they're looking at and can ask questions. They will give you a report at the end, but definitely take notes and/or pictures. You can (and should) ask them anything and everything you want. Remember also that everything can be fixed. I've definitely seen people get scared out of buying a 500,000 house because of something that would have cost $250 to fix. The expensive things that should scare you are the roof, foundation, HVAC, and environmental hazards. Speaking of environmental hazards, rules will vary by state, but at least around here they don't bother looking for lead paint or radon - you have to do that separately. Lastly a piece of homeownership advice - water is your enemy. It rots wood, rusts metal, and causes rot and mold. Keep your gutters clear, make sure water discharges far away from your foundation, and rainwater drains away from your house. (A landscaper can help with that if it doesn't). If you have a leak, do not ignore it. Nothing makes a $250 leak balloon to a $20,000 leak like doing nothing.

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Puzzleheaded_Bag9063@reddit (OP)

Water is the reason I sold the condo. 100 year old building. Ripped out the toilet and some of the floor to fix one leak and then it seemed like it was one leak after another until I’d had enough.

22 Comments

MinivanPops@reddit

If you're really interested in answering this question, it's been answered a million times on Reddit and you should read the dozens if not hundreds of threads on the subject. I'm not saying this to be a jerk. I'm saying this because no matter how big this thread gets, it's still going to be a fraction of the advice out there. Also, are you certain that your condos items were not okay? It's definitely possibly got a bad inspector. Also possible that folks who didn't quite know what they were looking at came afterwards, and said "your inspector should have caught that". I had my carpet guy trying to tell me a bunch of stuff. None of it was true. My advice would be pay a fair price for the top rated inspector in your area, ask them what they need to do their best inspection possible, follow their instructions. Set up a 15 minute phone call the day before the inspection to set up expectations. Set up a 30 minute to 60 minutes Zoom call once you get the report, to walk through it together. And of course attend whatever portion of the inspection they deem appropriate. No house is perfect, many inspection items really aren't that big of a deal. And yes, very good inspectors are expensive. They're in demand and quite busy.

Elrohwen@reddit

I think go in knowing that there will always be stuff they don’t find, especially depending on age of the house. And some things will just be stupid and annoying and won’t stop you from buying it anyway. Focus on the big stuff that are real deal breakers, not the silly little things that every house has.

TheREALBaldRider@reddit

No matter how good the inspector is, they won’t catch everything. I used one that realtors disliked. He told it how it was and was very thorough but things still weren’t found until we lived in the house for a while. There wasn’t anything that would have stopped me from buying the house but they are annoyances. I used him 3 times, two for myself (one fell out of escrow due to findings) and one for my dad when he was buying.

Leilani3317@reddit

this! spot on.

Get your own inspector - ask in the subreddit for your city or area. Do not use one recommended by your realtor. Be there with the inspector and follow them around. Ask a million questions. If you see something funky, ask. If you have doubts about any specific thing, get an additional inspection by a specialist - plumbing and sewer are worth it, I also had an electrical and structural because my house is 80 years old and there is a ton of janky shit lol. My inspector was awesome (he's jokingly called the Deal Killer by realtors) and so thorough. He gave me a TON of sidebar that wasn't in the report, things like "you don't need to fix this anytime soon, but i'm putting in the report and you should leverage it", to "this needs to be fixed immediately", to "call a few plumbers and have them come take a look at this XYZ thing before you decide to buy, get quotes on this & that, etc". I loved him.

fromthedarqwaves@reddit

Our inspector was so thorough i don’t think me being there would have made a difference, maybe a hinderance if anything. Our guy ended up creating a 100 page report with photos and arrows on nearly every page.

noblewind@reddit

Mine was like this too. Definitely made me feel more at ease with what I was buying.

jer1303@reddit

Last house we bought, we used a inspector that our realtor suggested. He found a lot of things. He also missed a couple things that he absolutely should have found that would have shaped our bargaining far differently. Ask questions, about everything. Some Inspectors will say they can't move anything to look behind it.... That's great, but you can.

Blackbird136@reddit

Do not use the realtor’s inspector. 3 years and 41k in unexpected repairs later (nearly a year’s salary for me), this is my advice to you. 🙃

Rubik842@reddit

Absolutely do not use an inspector recommended by a person that gets a fat wad of cash if the inspector finds nothing wrong.

Ineedavodka2019@reddit

They also usually have some sort of arrangement worked out. Find an independent inspector or ask the bank as they card a lot more than the realtor.

Imnotonthelist@reddit

This!!!!! Our house has all kinds of problems that the inspector didn’t catch. He was recommended by our realtor.

temporary_bob@reddit

This this this this. Do not trust your realtor. The is an inherent conflict of interest

Weekly_Library9883@reddit

With our first house, the inspector pointed out some things, but didn’t inform us of the severity. The detached garage comes to mind specifically. He wrote something rather vague that I forget (it’s been more than 10 years), and failed to tell us that the issue meant essentially the entire structure had to come down and be rebuilt. There were some other major surprises that were glossed over by the inspector, another one was the electric box (I seem to remember the house actually needed double the size?) and we wound up blowing fuses constantly. With our 2nd house, we had learned to ask more specifics and clarifications on the inspectors report whenever something was off.

cmh_ender@reddit

depends on the inspector, but we got a binder when they were finished and it had everything I could need. any issues that needed fixed now, stuff that could wait, any gotchas they could think of, it was very useful. my main takeaway now would be to take notes immedietly after and maybe even stick everything into chatgpt to prioritize and help you remember like 3 years down the road.

Exponential-777@reddit

Do not trust your realtor for anything. Especially not hiring an inspector. The inspector isn't required to be accurate. They can miss a $50,000 problem and it's your problem now. Not theirs.

TheOsirisOfThisShit_@reddit

Modern inspectors should be checking the roof with a drone.

bshr49@reddit

Hire your own independent inspector. It may be on the up-and-up, but realistically, the realtor wants the sale to go through and could be recommending an inspector who might turn a blind eye to some things to keep their working relationship going.

Moto272@reddit

I used the inspector my realtor recommended, but they also had tons of positive reviews and did a very thorough job. So far I haven’t found anything that the inspector missed. It’s definitely worth it to shadow the inspector. Him and I got up in the attic, on the roof, and in the crawlspace together. So basically everything he was pointing out I was also seeing. My biggest advice is do your due diligence, don’t get attached even after putting down earnest money, and make sure that any issues that are found are correctable without costing a fortune. You can always walk and find something else.

unethicalposter@reddit

Your real estate agenthas a vested interest in you not backing out of a contact. In certain cases that could mean recommending an inspector that might not do a great job. So do you due diligence and make sure your inspector has good reviews dog for those old reviews.

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