Understanding Home Inspection Deficiencies
Understanding home
inspection deficiencies is important to your real estate
transaction and Selman Home
Inspection Company believes that following the
advice of the Federal Housing Administration to obtain a home
inspection before closing on a property is a good decision. We
want to help buyers, sellers and Realtors understand home
inspection deficiencies. As
professional home inspectors, we protect Realtors, buyers and sellers from
legal liabilities and often identify things that most likely
should have already been repaired. Home buyers don’t
always understand how to proceed when the inspection report
reveals problems, areas of concern, safety hazards or needed
repairs. Prospective buyers may not
be aware of their options. Good Realtors will help their clients
make an informed decision based on the inspection results and
help their clients understand home inspection deficiencies. There
are four common ways for addressing home inspection
deficiencies:
Accept Property As Is
If you feel the
house is still worth the investment despite the problems
identified (home inspection deficiencies) by our home inspection, you can simply continue on the
path to purchase the house anyway. When you accept
responsibility to buy a property, “As Is”, or accept the
property knowing the facts about its condition based on our
inspection, be prepared to
cover the cost of repairs without blame. Accepting
responsibility does not mean a lawsuit targeting your Realtor or
the inspector. If you accept the house in "as is" condition, or
with the identified deficiencies, you'll be responsible for the
cost of repairing them. |
A Wiring Deficiency Found During A Selman Home
Inspection |
Renegotiate The Offer
If the problems revealed in the home inspection report are
serious, as a buyer, you may wish to modify your offer to buy. The owner then
has the choices of accepting your offer, rejecting the offer, or
making a counteroffer. The costs of home repairs vary greatly
depending on the system affected and the quality of contractors
secured for the job. When deficiencies are identified,
Selman Home
Inspection will advise clients to seek further evaluation from
a certified, licensed specialist about the system or systems in
question. This advice is not just to protect the inspector and real
estate agent, it is
sound professional advice.
Ask The Owner To Do The Repairs
Property owners are not obligated to go through with the sale
if you make it contingent on repairs being made based on the home
inspection findings. The property owner will often be willing to
correct problems in order to proceed with the sale. When asking the
property owner to make the repairs before proceeding with the sale,
make sure that the needed repairs are understood and that the
repairs will be “up to code” and to your satisfaction. Since the
home inspection identified the issue in the first place, it is a
good idea to have a “re-inspection” performed by the home inspector
to insure that the repairs are up to today’s standards.
Keep Looking
Walking away from the purchase and continuing to look for a
property in better condition may be in your best interest if the
problems are serious enough to consider re-negotiating the sale.
Serious problems such as major foundation issues, rotten foundation
wood, substandard wiring, separated rafters, basement that floods or
spalling masonry may be good reasons to withdrawing your offer. Many
times it is better to walk away from a home with serious structural
problems and a poor maintenance history (the cause of many defects)
rather than to risk paying for those problems as the buyer.
Understanding
Home Inspection Deficiencies
We perform home inspections to the Texas Standards of
Practice. We are comparing the property being inspected to “perfect”
conditions based on today’s building standards and local code. At
Selman Home
Inspection, we are not alarmists. Just because an item or system is
marked as “deficient” on the home inspection report does not mean
there is a major problem and that the deal should be re-negotiated.
As professional home inspectors, deficient simply means it is not
perfect by today’s building standards. This is always explained to
our clients at the time of an inspection. However, if in the opinion
of the inspector, we make a statement such as, “recommend that a
certified, licensed specialist be consulted for further evaluation”,
or “is a safety hazard” this normally identifies a more serious
problem that needs to be addressed, but, is not reason to panic and
pull out of a contract in most cases.
Here is an example. The inspection report identifies that the
bedrooms do not have
AFCI
protected receptacles. On the inspection report, this is (or should
be), a deficiency. However, unless a home in brand new, it most
likely does not have
AFCI
protection in the bedrooms. It is marked as “deficient” by the
inspector because today’s Texas Standards of Practice and most local
building codes state that
AFCI
receptacles are required in sleeping rooms. So, just because an item or system is
marked deficient, does not mean that the problem is serious and that
the deal should be re-negotiated. It is simply a comparison between
the property being inspected and perfect.
No home is perfect and
deficiencies will always be found in any house, new or old. It is a
judgment call by the trained eyes of a professional inspector and the opinion of the inspector who is just doing
the job the client hired them to do. As stated earlier, at
Selman Home
Inspections, we are not
alarmist and make every effort to ensure that our clients understand
home inspection deficiencies are rarely cause for alarm.
Selman Home Inspections
"Accurate Investment Protection You Can Trust"
469-371-3228
