Private home inspections for buyers have proven to be a very positive protection in the modern home buying process. As a result of an inspection, the buyer embarks on home ownership with a clearer, more accurate view of the property’s overall condition.
However, the inspection itself is no guarantee. Inspectors are fallible, like everyone else. In order to ensure that home buyers are informed on the home’s condition as fully as possible, inspectors work to identify major defects, as well as most minor ones. That does not mean that a home inspection will always identify every potential issue with a home, or that inspectors can foresee what issues may potentially arise in the future.
Buyers, along with guidance from their agent and their mortgage lender, must sort through the inspector’s report and decide what issues, if any, must be addressed. If buyers begin the inspection process with the misconception that the property could or should have been perfect, or that they can perfect the property through inspection and re-negotiation, it will be difficult to navigate the transaction to a successful closing.
In some instances, buyers and sellers may be wish to re-negotiate the sale based on costs associated with inspection discoveries. However, only those discoveries that are substantive and justified as new information, (not previously known by the buyer or disclosed by the seller), would be grounds for re-negotiating the sale. In other words, minor inspection issues should not give rise to unproductive “nit-picking.”
A few notes to consider when requesting a home inspection:
There is no perfect inspector, and home inspectors in Minnesota are not required to have any specific type of license in order to inspect homes. As a general rule, home ownership is an ongoing process of discovering defects and correcting them as needed.
Realtors can provide their clients with a list of home inspectors with whom they have worked within a geographical area. The buyer is responsible for selecting the inspector they want to work with, and for arranging the type of inspection they wish to have completed. Most inspectors require payment from the buyer upfront or at the time the inspection is completed.
The purpose of an inspection is to discover conditions that seriously change the value, or advisability, of purchasing the home; or flaws that may prevent the buyer from obtaining mortgage financing.
The purpose of an inspection is not to make the property perfect, or an assumption that the seller has guaranteed perfection.
There is no perfect property. A home inspection simply identifies specific imperfections that are discovered within the home at the time of an inspection. Additional inspections for outbuildings, radon testing, septic system compliance, or safe well water, must be specifically requested and discussed with the home inspector prior to the initial scheduled inspection.
