What Happens at a Home Inspection?

by Jamohl DeWald
August 7, 2019
Real Estate
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You just got your offer accepted! Now what?

So you have spent months looking for your dream home, may have submitted several offers that didn’t get accepted. Who cares! You finally WON! Time for celebration right?! Whoaaaaa….slow your roll. What happens now that you finally got your offer accepted?! In this article I will discuss one of the big items that can either make or break a deal once it is completed-home inspections that is.

Next steps

A lot of little things take place at this point. Transaction coordinators are alerted, escrow is opened, timelines and dates are established according to the sale agreement concerning inspections and contingency removals. Decisions are made on what home inspections you want to do (full home, radon, sewer, tank scan, LBP, which may have been decided in your offer already). Your realtor should have options & suggestions for you if needed when it comes to what inspections are recommended depending on the home and location you are buying in. The radon inspection requires closed house conditions and takes about 48 hours for the test to fully run.

Types of home inspections

There are a lot of home inspections that can be performed as outlined in the sample form above. This article will go over 3 very common inspections and why you may want to consider them when doing your next home purchase or even selling your home.

Home Seller Inspections?

Why would you want to pay for a home inspection before you put your own home on the market?? If you are handy at all you will at the very least want your agent to walk the property/home with you and look at the home through a buyers eyes to try to eliminate anything that a prospective buyer may have concerns with when you do go to market with your home. After all, there are already enough things that can go wrong with a real estate transaction as it is. It’s best to eliminate all the simple repair/maintenance things before you even put your home on the market.

Why would that be? Because something simple like caulking a window, caulking a sink, fixing a leaky bathroom sink are all items that would cost you quite a bit more money if the buyer calls out those simple repairs in a repair addendum after the inspection and uses langauge like all repairs to be performed by a licensed contractor, or licensed plumber. Those 3 items alone could easily have been done by the homeowner over a weekend but now you have to get licensed this and that involved and get bids for contractors to do those simple tasks. Now you may be saying, “I wouldn’t even want to be in contract with a person that asks me to caulk around the sink! What do they think they are getting, a brand new home!??” What should be asked for in a home inspection repair addendum is a whole other blog post! I believe it is our duty as realtors to prep/advise our buyers and sellers what could happen during the process.

Full Home Inspection

What goes on at a home inspection, how long do they take typically, who pays for them and do you have to do them?

What goes on at home inspections – During the home inspection (sample inspection) it is the inspectors job to pick the home apart from top to bottom including the exterior, interior, crawlspace, roof and attic! The inspector goes through the whole home thoroughly checking that all the plumbing, and electrical are performing as they should (at least what can be seen without tearing into walls). This report is typically 30+ pages long with photos and descriptions giving the buyer or seller very detailed information on what’s wrong, what licensed professionals should be contacted for and corrective actions that should be taken to address the items of concern. A sewer scope usually only takes about 15-30 minutes from start to finish as long as access to the sewer line cleanout is easy. The sewer scope technician will run a line with a tiny camera on it from the home all the way to where the sewer line connects to the main sewer line to ensure there are no low spots or root intrusions along the way that may cause issues for you down the road. Sewer line repairs can be very costly if sidewalks and streets need to be torn up ($10,000+) A bill like that makes you realize a $150 test to confirm there are no issues is money well spent even if it is a brand new construction home! The radon inspection requires closed home conditions (no windows or doors can be left open for long periods of time) that take up to 48 hours. “Wait, what? What the hell is a radon test?” Here is a Layman’s description of Radon-Radon is a cancer-causing radioactive gas. You cannot see, smell or taste radon. The Surgeon General has warned that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States today. There is no rhyme or reason as to what homes in any community might have higher levels and need mitigation. One home on the block may have high levels and the home next door may test with lower levels. The good news is that this can be mitigated and remediation is not too expensive typically. Again the price for a radon test @ $150 makes it worth every penny considering remediation can start at about $1,500 and go up from there.
How long does inspection take – The average 1500 sq ft home can take two and a half to three and a half hours here in Portland, OR & surrounding areas. Smaller homes & condos can take shorter times while larger homes take longer to perform.
Who $ Pays? – For the inspections we are talking about here today (full home, sewer scope, radon) The buyer pays for these inspections in our market here in PDX. The home inspection itself runs on average anywhere from $400-$550 range, a sewer scope is typically $100-$150 and a radon test is around $125 in the Portland, OR market. The total for these 3 very common inspections run in the neighborhood of $575-$750 range depending on the square footage of the home.
Do you have to? – You don’t have to do any inspections if you don’t want to. It’s not typically recommended foregoing the inspection process unless you are a flipper/contractor and prepared to take on unforeseen issues that can turn up with the home down the road and even then, skipping the home inspection can still be a risky proposition.