Home Inspections Keep Expenses Down : Real estate: Only about 40% of homes sold nationally are checked out. If you do hire an inspector, be sure to evaluate his credentials beforehand.
That charm ing Victorian purchased with your life savings has a boiler that conks out in the dead of winter. The roof leaks. Repairs on the wrap-around porch don’t hold up as well as the previous owners promised.
While it’s impossible to catch everything that can go wrong, household calamities like these can often be avoided with a thorough inspection before the final sale.
But inspect the credentials of your inspector first; a shoddy examination can be worse than none.
A good inspector usually will charge around $250 and spend at least two hours examining the structural, electrical and mechanical elements of a home. Among the areas checked: the heating and cooling systems; roof and siding; walls, ceilings and floors; foundation; plumbing; and indoor appliances.
The inspector’s report should note any defects, along with an estimate for the cost of repairs. The home buyer either can request the repairs be made before the sale, have the costs deducted from the selling price, or walk away from the deal.
Dorcas Helfant, who runs Coldwell Banker-Helfant Realty in Virginia Beach, Va., said even though she’s seen deals occasionally fall through because of a negative inspection report, her office routinely recommends all buyers have professional inspections.
“This is probably going to be the biggest investment of their lives . . . (and) most people don’t have the expertise to pick out defects in a house,” said Helfant, a past president of the National Assn. of Realtors trade group in Washington.
“Besides, who wants to crawl under a house with all those creepy, crawly things?” she said.
In many parts of the country, buying a home without a professional inspection is unthinkable. In fact, more sellers are also having inspections done after they advertise their property to avoid price haggling and to comply with state disclosure laws that make them liable for known defects.
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Still, inspections are conducted on only 40% of all the homes sold in this country, said the American Society of Home Inspectors in Arlington Heights, Ill. Most mortgage lenders don’t routinely require them, relying instead on the appraisal and separate termite or water-testing reports.
Some inspectors report resistance among real estate agents in certain parts of the country, particularly in rural areas.
“A Realtor may see home inspections as another hurdle to jump over to make the sale,” said Ron Passaro, owner of Res-I-Tech Inc. in Bethel, Conn., and a founding member of ASHI.
“Home inspection is still a relatively new profession; it didn’t exist 25 yeas ago for the most part,” he said. It “started basically in the Northeast, spread along the Eastern corridor, jumped to California and grew on the West Coast. In the last 10 years, it’s filling in the heartland.”
ASHI has been active these days promoting the largely unregulated industry, as well as denouncing so-called “fly-by-night” home-inspection schools, which it says offer students insufficient crash courses.
“Some people think all they need is a clipboard and a pencil and they’re inspectors,” said Passaro. “In every profession there are people who are straightforward . . . and then there are those who choose to operate on a sleazy basis.”
Jim Antt, who runs Jim Antt Realtor in Bakersfield, Calif., has seen the results of a sleazy inspection. He recalled one unsuspecting home buyer who had to pay another $1,000 just weeks after the closing to repair a problem roof the inspector failed to spot.
Had they known about the defect beforehand, they could have prevented some of the water damage that occurred, he said.
“The roofer said a good inspector should have spotted it in a minute,” Antt said. “We tried to call the home inspector and found they had gone out of business.”
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Passaro said that, in the absence of federal licensing requirements his group imposes its own set of guidelines that require, among other things, members to take at least 18 hours of additional home-inspection courses each year to keep abreast of environmental and other issues. ASHI also prohibits members from endorsing contractors for specific repair work or from doing the work themselves.
While certification by ASHI is a positive sign, home buyers should do some checking on their own before hiring an inspector. For example, they’ll want to know how long the inspector has been in business, the extent of training and whether there’s adequate insurance coverage. (“Errors and omissions” insurance policies cover inspector negligence; liability insurance protects the home buyer should the inspector damage something at the inspection site.)
“The homeowner should . . . also go down to the local town hall and check the local flood plan or talk to neighbors,” said Kenneth T. Austin, chairman of HouseMaster of America Inc. in Bound Brook, N.J. “Some people will tell you everything. If it’s a new development and the neighbors are angry at the builder, that’s their way of getting even.”
Home buyers must also be aware of regional differences. In certain parts of California, inspectors may urge home buyers to obtain geological studies of their neighborhood, while in Florida they may recommend examining a flood map.
One thing home buyers need to remember is that, regardless of an inspector’s expertise, there’s no such thing as 100% accuracy.
“It’s an art form. It’s not an exacting science. It’s based on a visual observation,” Passaro said. “I can’t tell you what’s behind the walls or ceilings--at least not now.”
He said one person who applied for membership in ASHI claimed she could do that. “She said she was a psychic and could feel the vibes in a house. We politely turned her down.”
