Getting Prepared for the Inspection

How to Prepare your House for a Home Inspection

No home is perfect and that is okay. We find many major and minor issues in our inspection everyday. As silly as it sounds, brand new houses often have issues as well. There could be issues with the electrical system, plumbing system, healing and cooling system, or the roofing system even though it is new!

If you are a homeowner, it can be a good idea to look into how to prepare your house for a home inspection. This way you can be aware of these issues before you list the house on the market. You can find out these issues by getting a pre-listing home inspection. This will help you identify problems that exist. By identifying issues early, you can get ahead of them and fix them before the potential home buyer discovers them with his inspection. The last thing you want is to wait until after the buyer shows up with his inspector and get caught like a deer in the headlights. By waiting until the buyer’s home inspector shows up it can cause delays, extra costs (What is the buyer demands you use the really expensive company when a cheaper local option is just as good), and even sometimes dealbreakers.

For homebuyers, inspectors see things through years of experience that homesellers cannot. It is vital to have a thorough inspection, even if the inspection turns up more issues than you are comfortable with and you have to move on to a different home. By having a home inspection you are then armed with knowledge to negotiate problems the house has or if all else fails, pull out of the contract. It is always important to have an ‘inspection contingency’ in the contract so that you can negotiate and you can back out if you need to.

While preparing for the inspection, there are some good things to know. Firstly, there is not currently one central federal regulation that enforces home inspectors. The laws that govern us are different from state to state. As a result of this, it is important to dig into the inspection you are trying to hire. Make sure they have actual licensed home inspector experience. Oftentimes in this industry someone claims they have years of inspection experience when simply in reality they have been licensed home inspectors for 6 months but one time helped their dad build a deck 15 years ago and that is when, for advertising purposes, they officially started being home inspections. This industry has only been around for 30 years or so. It is still the wild west. Do your research. We recommend ten years of licensed home inspector experience at a minimum if you do not want the inspector training on your house. We think it is a good idea for your inspector to also have International Code Council certifications. In other words, is he code certified? This is a tough certification to get and most inspectors do not get it. But it really gives the inspector a backbone on what is typical and what is not which is what we do all day. 

Once your inspector has arrived, it is recommended that you accompany him or her on the inspection of the property. This is so you can become familiar with the home and its systems as well as exactly what repairs the inspector recommends and why. You might also want to prepare a list of items that you’ve seen in the home that you feel are cause for concern as well as any questions you may have. The inspection is a great time to find out where the home’s water and gas shutoffs are and where the fuse box is.

Here are some other suggestions for homeowners:

Accessibility: Make sure that all areas of the home are accessible, especially to the attic and crawl space. It’s also a good idea to trim any trees and shrubs that may make an inspection of the exterior of the property difficult.

Housekeeping: The inspector may photograph your home for the inspection report, so clearing the clutter and moving vehicles from the front of the home will help the inspection go smoother.

Maintenance: Repair minor things like leaky faucets, missing door handles and trim.