Nine times out of ten, your home is the most important and most expensive purchase you will ever make.  However, unlike the other purchases that buyers make with a guarantee attached to it, your home often comes WITHOUT a money-back guarantee or even a return policy.  This is true even if you are not satisfied with your purchase. So once you buy a home, you are on your own for any maintenance, repair issues, problems, and associated bills.  In addition, this is the reason why you have to know as much about your potential home as you possibly can before you sign on that dotted line and close that deal.

What Do [Profile.market2] Home Inspectors Do?

Everybody is ready to believe that the best way to understand a home’s condition, habitability, and safety is through a [Profile.market2] home inspector, and they are right in believing so.  A properly trained and professional [Profile.market2] home inspector will review a house and all its systems.  He will look at how one component of the house might affect the operability or lifespan of another.  In doing this, he is able to give you a more or less accurate picture that no amount of sales talk can cover up.

The [Profile.market2] home inspector will go through the property and perform a comprehensive and objective visual inspection of all its aspects. He will assess the condition of the house and of all its systems.  In doing that, he helps in determining the components that are not performing properly as well as items that are beyond their useful life or are unsafe.

A [Profile.market2] home inspector’s specialty is identifying problems and areas that need repair or that may need replacing soon.  However, a [Profile.market2] home inspector’s job is not merely restricted to problem identification. His functions may include areas where critical repairs may be needed and where there may have been problems in the past.  The purpose of a [Profile.market2] home inspector’s report is to provide you, the client, with a better understanding of the property condition, as observed at the time of the inspection.

What is the Scope of the Inspection?

The [Profile.market2] home inspector can only provide a visual inspection.  He does this by looking at the home’s various systems, including both the interior and exterior components.  If he cannot gain access to certain difficult to reach areas, then they should be noted on the report but will not be included in his overall assessment.  The usual places that a [Profile.market2] home inspector checks include exterior components, such as roofing, flashing, chimneys, gutters, downsprouts, wall surfaces, the foundation, the sprinkler system, the well system, the septic system and the grading around it.

Interior systems that a [Profile.market2] home inspector will check include electrical, heating, air conditioning, ventilation, plumbing, insulation, flooring, ceiling and wall finishes, windows and doors.  Fireplaces and wood stoves are not the areas of the [Profile.market2] home inspector as these are not plentiful in our area nor do we  use these for heating.  Only WETT (Wood Energy Technology Training) specialists are qualified to inspect those areas.

A [Profile.market2] home inspector does not appraise your home.  Neither is he able to exact quotes for repairs or point out the noncompliance with building code requirements.

What is Your Responsibility before the home inspection?

Yes, you do have responsibilities before and during the home inspection.  It is up to you to ensure that the home inspector is the one that will give you the information you need.  Your Real Estate Agent will give you a list of people that they have used in the past but it is up to you to determine which of them will be the best for you. Talk to the home inspectors and ask them if it is okay for you to be there and follow them around and film it if necessary.  If they don't agree then move on to the next one.

What is Your Reponsibility during the home inspection?

It is your responsibility to be there at the home inspection.  These homes don't come with owner's manuals so you can't sit down and read the manual later.  You need to learn about your new house from the home inspector.  The best thing is to have a video camera and follow the inspector around the house asking questions about things that you don't understand.  Later on you can view the video tape to refresh your memory.  At a minimum you should have a pen and paper with you and write everything down.  You are paying for the inspector so you might as well get your money's worth.

What Home Inspectors won't tell you

This is a little known secret that you only usually find out in a courtroom or from a lawyer.  The liability of the home inspector is limited to the amount of money that you pay for the inspection.  If you sue the inspector because they missed something then you can only recover what you paid him.  In most cases, this doesn't cover the cost of fixing or replacing what they missed.  It behooves you to be there at the inspection and ask lots of questions.

There is a lot of free information available to you about buying, selling or investing in [Profile.market2] real estate.  For complete information about the [Profile.market2] real estate market including current homes for sale, property values and more please visit the most complete website online dedicated to everything [Profile.market2] real estate.  So please feel free to contact me with any of your real estate questions and I will me more than glad to answer your queries. Call me on my cell at [Profile.cell_phone] or email me at [Profile.email_link].  For everything Cape Coral Real Estate, please visit my websites at www.livingincapecoralnow.com or www.dancraddock.com.

Thanks and have a very prosperous day!