What to Pay Attention to in a Home Inspection Report

Buying a home is an intense process. You’re throwing (potentially) hundreds of thousands of dollars at a home, and in this market buyers have minimal leverage in the buying process. Home buyers will often bend over backwards when making offers, offering tens of thousands of dollars over asking price and waving the inspection contingency.

However, for those who choose to get an inspection on a home (which is highly recommended), it can be daunting to get back a 30 page report riddled with jargon you don’t understand. So, what is it that you should be looking for in a home inspection? Here are a few high-level items you’ll want to pay attention to in that report:

Structural Elements

One of the main things a home inspector is paying attention to is the structural integrity of the home. This involves detailed analysis of the foundation of the home, load bearing walls and layout, attics and crawl spaces, etc. Basically, they’re looking for any major issues that need to be serviced.

If they report back about foundation issues, you need to figure out how much it will cost to repair as soon as possible. Foundation issues when left unfixed can lead to major problems with the rest of your home. As the home settles, support beams will weaken, the basement can flood, and in rare instances you may find a cracked foundation to cause radon leakage.

Age of Appliances

You don’t need to be an expert on appliances to understand this section of the report, but what you do want to pay attention to is both the age of the appliances as well as their average expected lifetime.

You can technically continue to service your water heater, furnace, and AC unit, but at some point you’ll just be continuing to sink money into something that ultimately needs to be replaced. Generally speaking, if it’s older than 20 years, you should start considering the price to just replace the whole unit.

Electrical

This is one of the easiest things to overlook when you do a walk through on a home. Who’s going to go through the whole house and flip every light switch? Well... your inspector will, and it’s good to know whether or not electrical has been properly routed and wired.

Make sure you give a thorough look at this section of the report to figure out whether anything needs to be repaired or fixed. Electrical issues can be a pain if they’re not taken care of!

If you are planning on buying or selling a home and have plans for renovations, don’t forget to reach out to Tony. McClung! His architectural designer expertise will be essential to you!