You’re nearly at the end of the buying process and too near to owning the home you’ve been eyeing for a time for which your wallet has gone thin. Then comes a hurdle, home inspection. Why should you get someone to take a look at the home, whose services you have to pay, when you can even do it yourself? We are all equipped with the five senses, aren’t we? So, why can’t you just perform the home inspection yourself, skip the formalities and the reports, and jump into ownership?
And more questions may come into your mind as you are filled with anticipation to get your hands on the keys to the main door. Why, after the process of thorough inspection, must those discrepancies be checked again by another qualified professional?
And then, as you look at the able inspector going through the nooks and crannies of your would-be home, you ask yourself, why can’t he just do the repairs himself since he was the one who pointed out the said safety hazards in the first place?
As they are yet unanswered at this point, you might think that home inspection is totally unnecessary. But the truth is, home inspection is very much practical while you are enamored by the thought of living in the home of your choice and burdened by the work and the wait that’s still to be done. Let us clear your clouded mind in the most reasonable way.
Basic Senses Are Not Enough
To answer the first question, why do you need to pay someone hundreds of dollars to take a look at your future home? Sure, you might be able to notice some future safety hazards, a leaky faucet, a faulty electrical line, this crack and that, but not all. Your experience might have given you a sharp eye but they are actually not sharp enough without proper knowledge.
An inspector has the experience and the education to be able to point out potential problems and future hazards; (aside from the obvious ones, of course) from the exterior, the roof, the electrical, the plumbing, the heating system(s), the cooling system(s), insulation and ventilation, the interiors, and the fireplaces. A house, in general, is a huge system consisting of smaller complex systems, and the average homeowner won’t be able to look at every detail his or herself.
A homeowner may not be able to point out all the safety hazards which an educated and experienced inspector may find. Remember your first-time buying potatoes, you were not sure which were the best ones (as a kid or a teenager perhaps), and might have gotten ones that look good on the outside but were rotten inside. Someone who has been studying potatoes more than you do would be able to avoid those rotten ones, even those that had deceptively good exterior. Therefore, to be assured that everything in your future home would be in order, you need someone with a better eye for details than you do to do the job.
Specialists vs. Generalists
After the home inspector is done with his job, pointing out which parts of your future home needs attention, another ‘qualified professional’ will have to step in and take a closer look. It may seem overbearing already, but think of it like this. In the field of medicine, there are general practitioners and there are specialists. When you feel pain in your stomach, you will first go to your family doctor, identify the cause of the pain, then he/she will recommend a specialist, perhaps a gastroenterologist, proctologist, internist, etc. The same goes with the process of home inspection, home inspectors are like general practitioners who are going to look at everything in the house, and in order for the issue to be mitigated properly, they will call in an expert. This way, the best kind of service is rendered and that the job is done right. You wouldn’t leave anything to unspecific solutions, don’t you? You need to make sure that problems will not exist by finding out the root cause.
Home Inspectors are not Contractors
If an inspector tells you that they can fix the issues themselves, you should be suspicious. Home inspectors, when they acquired their license, were sworn into a code of ethics. Simply, when a home inspector transforms into a contractor on the spot, their inspection would no longer be objective. Who knows, one just wanted to make profit out of a non-existing issue and put it in the report. Right? Thus, you, as the future homeowner, should be protected by a home inspector’s unbiased accounts on the current state of the home.
A good home inspector is not looking to gain anything from whatever he puts in his report. Sure, they can fix what they find is wrong in the house, but a good one will not do so. Home inspectors may either belong to major organizations such as ASHI, NACHI or NAHI, who have their own code of ethics which may, in general, bar them from doing any repairs on a property that they inspected in the past six months.
DMD Home Inspector looks after your safety as a homeowner and secure a good future in the home you are about to purchase. Our job is to help you make the best decision upon purchasing and as a division of DMD Real Estate Marketing, we will do our best job to help you determine the overall health and safety of the property you are looking to purchase.