Home Inspection

In the past, when people bought a house, they had to trust their own visual inspection of the property and accept the homeowner's word that interior systems were in proper working order. This loosely woven system of implied trust worked well in many cases; but sometimes unsuspecting families, upon moving in, discovered leaking roofs, corroded water pipes and overloaded electrical systems, about which the sellers mayor may not have known.

Against a backdrop of heightened consumer awareness, a new method for protecting buyers and insuring successful sales has come into play. It is the professional home inspection.

Armed with the skills and knowledge to ferret out hidden flaws in the mechanical and structural condition of residential construction, the Home Inspector, at the buyer's expense, will provide the buyer with a report on specific conditions and potential problems within a few days following the signing of a real estate contract.

This report serves to alert buyers to major flaws or problems with a property prior to closing. Inserted in the contract as a condition of sale, the Home Inspection Clause helps to protect the buyer and, when prepared by a competent Home Inspector, the inspection report can perform a useful function.

The Home Inspection is not for the purpose of assembling a list of normal wear-and-tear items to be used as a wedge to reopen price negotiations after the fact, or as a convenient means to negate a sales contract.

Similarly, it is not intended to demand retroactively that a seller repair items obviously defective at the time the home was seen by the buyer. These items (such as leaky faucets, wall cracks, broken window panes, etc.) should be addressed specifically in the contract or simply considered in the price negotiations.