These days when you’re thinking of buying a new home, the trend is to get a home inspector check it first.
A home inspection is an independent and objective visual examination of a home that potential buyers like you are considering. The home inspector is an expert when it comes to assessing the overall condition of the house, including all its external structures such as roofing, ceiling, walls, foundation, etc. and its systems, like air conditioning, heating, and such. His role is very important in that he is able to give you unbiased observation of how good a condition the house really is or how bad, and from his report, you can then make your own intelligent decision whether or not to buy the house.
A Professional Assessor
The most important component of a good home inspection is the home inspector. He must be thorough and professional in his assessment. A common misconception among home buyers and even real estate agents is that the home inspector is someone who assesses the real value of a property and examines whether or not it conforms to the building code of the community, when in fact, he only sees to it that both parties know the actual condition of the house.
On that thought, the home inspector therefore not only focuses on the bad aspects of a house (e.g. leaky bathroom faucet, roof leaks, faulty electrical system), but also on the good aspects. Not only that, he also gives the home buyer some pointers on the maintenance and increasing the good shelf life of the property.
What He Inspects
A home inspector will examine more or less ten key aspects of your home. These are the structures, the exterior, roofing, plumbing, electrical system, heating and air conditioning, home interior, ventilation, appliances, and fireplaces.
When examining your potential home, it is always best if you accompany your home inspector. That way, you can ask him detailed questions as to how bad things are or how good and how you can prevent further damage or maintain their working condition. Your home inspector is trained in all this and he possesses all the technical skills and knowledge to satisfy all your questions.
In conducting an exterior inspection, your home inspector will be doing a visual assessment of entry ways, foundations, siding and porches. He will be looking for problems or symptoms of problems, such as sagging roof lines, gaps in or damage to the siding, porches pulling away from the building, obvious signs of rot or insect damage settlement, and certain types of cracks in the foundations.
Most of what he does is only visual examinations. He might probe the cill or rim, that wooden support that sits on the foundation and into which the framing is fastened, and framing where it is exposed, to test for soft or hollow spots caused by rot or pests. But anything more than that, he won’t be able to do.
The purpose of this, of course, is to make sure that your potential home is safe place to be, and whether or not, it is worth the price touted by the seller.
There is a lot of free information available to you about buying, selling or investing in real estate. For complete information about the real estate market including current homes for sale, property values and more please visit the most complete website online dedicated to everything real estate. So please feel free to contact me with any of your mortgage questions and I will me more than glad to answer your queries. Call me on my cell at 801-518-4599 or email me at kathyo@kathyohomes.com.
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