Why A Home Inspection Can Save You Money When Buying Your New Home

When you are look for your new home, one of the things that you may not think about is repair costs. You’re looking for a house that “feels like home,” that has the right number of bedrooms, the yard you want, and one that you can afford. Platinum Property Inspections, your local Prescott home inspector, recommends that you include a comprehensive home inspection as part of your offer to buy your new home.

So you’re asking, why is a home inspection so important? Repairs to a home can cost thousands of dollars, and environmental hazards like mold, lead paint, or formaldehyde can cause serious health problems. You want to make sure you know what you’re getting before you spend thousands to buy a house. Home inspections are required by some lenders. But as an informed home buyer, it is a good choice to make sure that a home inspection is included in your transaction, and that the responsibility for fixing any items found is spelled out.

Some of the things included in a comprehensive home inspection:

• Are things like walls, windows, doorways, and floors straight?
• Are there cracks in the walls, floors, or ceilings? Are there deflections or bulges?
• Are there watermarks on ceilings, walls, or in the basement or crawlspace?
• Has there been poor maintenance of windows, doors, the roof, gutters, or exterior paint?
• Is the foundation eroding?
• How old are the appliances and what condition are they in?
• Are there obvious problems with the electrical wiring, outlets, switches, in the main panel?
• How old are the furnace and air conditioning units and what condition are they in?
• Are there visible problems with the plumbing like leaking faucets, water stains around sinks and shower, or noisy pipes?
• Is the roof in good condition or are there shingles missing, rot, etc.

If you have some reason to suspect an additional problem, like mold, asbestos, toxic chemicals, natural disasters (like earthquakes or floods), or lead paint in a building built before 1978, you may want to schedule special inspections to check for those problems.

Another important factor in your home inspection is making sure you have the right inspector. You will want someone who is knowledgeable, experienced, conscientious, and very picky. Ask what kind of report they do. Don’t hire an inspector who just gives you a rating of good, fair, or poor for each category. You want a discussion of any problems and potential cost to repair.

At Platinum Property Inspections, we believe in doing inspections the right way. Some inspectors don’t look in the crawl space or go up on the roof. We get down and dirty and inspect all areas of the property and give you a comprehensive report giving you detail on any problems, the severity of the problem, as well as verifying items that are in good condition.

So when you buy that new Prescott home, make sure you also request a complete home inspection, whether it is required by the lender or not. And for a quality inspection and report, including pictures, please call Platinum Property Inspections at 928-713-0889 to schedule your inspection.