Do I Need A Home Inspection?
Someone asked me this the other day and here’s the answer. No, you don’t need one. Do you need one? Like, absolutely need one? No. Is it required? No. By law, there’s nothing saying that you have to have a home inspection.
Should you get one? That’s another question altogether, right, so the answer to that is probably yes. Why? It should be obvious. It’s going to uncover some challenges that you may face with the home, the plumbing, the heating, the electrical, the roof, the windows, et cetera. And, at the very least it’s going to give you kind of a little book, right, so at the end, you get… You probably know if you’ve had one before. If you haven’t, just so you know, they give you a little booklet in a PDF format. It’s usually email to you most times within 24 hours or so, of all the challenges with the home.
Whether you care about it or don’t care about it, it’s still nice to have that information, even as FYI, for your information only. That’s what a lot of people are doing in this tight, tight buyers market, well, actually, seller’s market, where buyers are competing and vying for the same homes, the same houses, same properties, condos, whatnot in this market. I guess it’s definitely local, but I hear that it’s also trending nationally as well, and what people are doing to strategize, right, to help win the house because people forget.
People think being successful with a bid or an offer on a home is all about money, all about price. It’s not. Actually, it’s three things. It’s price, timing and conditions. Price, timing, conditions. So if someone, sellers amassed a whole bunch of stuff over the years, they’ve been there 30, 40 years, raised a family, they might have a lot of stuff so they need longer to close. Some people that just the house is empty, they’ve moved on, they want shorter. So it’s price, timing, conditions.
Inspections is a condition and in this market, a lot of people are… Some are waiving inspections, which is never a great idea. But some are doing FYI, for their information only, and that strategy is really helping them ease that condition and saying, “All right, I’ll have the inspection, but I’m not going to beat you up over a light bulb or a light switch. I’m going to pay the price is the price is the price,” and they’re getting that kind of for their information.
So do you need a home inspection? No. Should you get one? Probably, yes. It’s good to know as knowledge is power.
Tony Lanni, realtor.com. Get in touch. Let me get you into your next home. Take care. Talk to you again soon in the next video.