When you are buying a house, costs can add up so quickly that it is tempting to cut corners where you see them. On the surface, a home inspection might seem like one of these shortcuts. “After all,” you reason, “I don’t need to pay someone hundreds of dollars to tell me whether my house is in good shape or not.” The appraisal requires sending out an inspector, right? And the homeowner’s insurance inspection? Why have an additional inspection?
?While it’s true that a homeowner’s inspection identifies things that could be wrong with the house that are visible to the naked eye, it’s unlikely that you know as much as he does about just how many things there are to inspect in your new residence. Do you know, for example, how to identify if a toilet is going to need replacing? If your new home has a fireplace, like so many Virginian homes do, do you know the signs that it is in good working order - or if it is a fire hazard that could destroy your possessions and hurt your family? Can you tell if your dryer is properly vented? How about whether the wiring is hooked up correctly on your garbage disposal? Unless the answer to all these questions is a confident “yes,” then you could probably benefit from an inspector’s services.
While a home inspection can help you identify problems in your new home, there are limits to what an inspector can help you with. Inspectors, for instance, can’t tell you if you have termites or other vermin infesting your home. By law only a licensed pest inspector can check for these things. Obviously, an inspector can’t look at anything that is a concealed flaw, either. The house doesn’t technically belong to you yet, and you can’t just go ripping out and patching walls to look at things like hidden wiring and plumbing. The inspector won’t check out swimming pools or hot tubs, gas appliances, or point out cosmetic defects (this part, it is assumed, you should be able to do for yourself).
If you are buying a condo or townhouse, know that there are special conditions under which an inspection must be done. An inspector would be short-sighted to only check out your potential future property and not common areas as well. Say that the structure is crumbling in the parking garage and you park your lovely new car in there. If it comes tumbling down and your vehicle gets crushed, your insurance is unlikely to cover it. By the same token, it might cost more to have the inspector check out the entire roof, but won’t you be grateful if you aren’t woken up in the middle of the night by a persistent leak damaging your hardwood floors?
What is comes down to is that the cost of a home inspection shouldn’t deter you from getting one. First of all, if the cost seems too high, then your financial situation is probably not secure enough to buy a home anyway. Secondly, a home inspection stands to save you a lot of money in the long run by avoiding costly and/or troublesome problems. Before you close on a home in Northern Virginia, spring for the inspection. It’s always a good idea.
