Getting the House Inspected

Every house has defects. Know what to fix and what to avoid by familiarizing yourself with common defects and understanding the role of an inspector, the goals of an inspection, and your legal rights.

Inspector's Top 10
Know how extensive repairs will be before you take them on.

1. The house has poor drainage.
This is the most common problem found by home inspectors. To improve drainage, you may have to install a new system of roof gutters and downspouts or have the lot re-graded to better channel water away from the house.
2. The house has faulty wiring.
An insufficient or out-of-date electrical system is a common problem, especially in older homes. This is a potentially hazardous defect and not to be taken lightly. You may have to replace the entire electrical system, or at least part of it, to bring this home up to code or to make it safe.
3. The roof leaks.
If the roof has water damage, it may be caused by old or damaged shingles, or improper flashing. It's cheap and relatively easy to repair shingles and small amounts of flashing, but if the roof is old, you face a much larger expense to replace the whole thing.
4. The house has an unsafe heating system.
An older heating system or one that has been poorly maintained can be a serious health and safety hazard. You may have to repair or replace the old furnace. This is a major expense, but new furnaces are more energy-efficient, which will probably save you money down the line. If your heating system is anything but electrical, install carbon monoxide detectors in a couple of locations in the house.
5. The whole house has been poorly maintained.
Examples of poor maintenance include cracked or peeling paint, crumbling masonry, broken fixtures or shoddy wiring or plumbing. You can easily repaint a wall, replace a fixture or repair a brick wall, but makeshift electrical or plumbing situations are serious and potentially dangerous problems. Replace any such wires or pipes.
6. The house has minor structural damage.
Minor structural damage means the house is not likely to fall down, but you should deal with the problem before it becomes more serious. Such damage is usually caused by water seepage into the foundation, floor joists, rafters or window and door headers. First you need to fix the cause of the problem (a leaky roof, for example), then repair or replace any damaged pieces. The more extensive the damage, the more expensive it will be to repair.
7. The house has plumbing problems.
The most common plumbing defects include old or incompatible piping materials and faulty fixtures or waste lines. These may require simple repairs, such as replacing a fixture, or more expensive measures, such as replacing the plumbing itself.
8. The house's exterior lets in water and air around windows and doors.
This usually does not indicate a structural problem, rather poor caulking and weather stripping that require relatively simple and inexpensive repairs around windows and doors..
9. The house is inadequately ventilated.
Poor ventilation can result in too much moisture that wreaks havoc on interior walls and structural elements. It can also exacerbate allergic reactions. Install ventilation fans in every bathroom if there are no windows, and regularly open all the windows in your home. To repair damage caused by poor ventilation, you may only have to replace drywall and other inexpensive pieces. If you have to replace a structural element, it will be more expensive.
10. The house has an environmental hazard.
Environmental problems are a new and growing area of home defects. They include lead-based paint (common in homes built before 1978), asbestos, formaldehyde, contaminated drinking water, radon and leaking underground oil tanks. You usually need to arrange a special inspection to determine environmental problems, and they're usually expensive to fix. For example, it costs $1,000 to install a radon-ventilation system, and about $6,000 to remove a leaking oil tank.
 

Know Your Inspector

Inspection Types

A standard pre-purchase inspection covers a home's major mechanical systems—electrical, plumbing, heating, and cooling—and its construction from roof to foundation, exterior to interior. Overall inspections do not cover soil, pools, wells, septic systems, building code violations or environmental hazards such as lead. If you are a buyer, include an inspection contingency in your purchase contract; it should allow you up to two weeks to conduct an overall inspection plus any specialized inspections you (or your lender) require. Most inspections cost several hundred dollars. Specialized inspections usually involve an expert and can cost more. Remember, repairs or remedies are negotiable; they also can derail a deal.

Type of inspection	What it covers	Cost/who pays	Remedies
Standard pre-purchase	Overall home construction and condition, including major mechanical systems	$200-$500; buyer	Conduct further specialized inspections; repair
Wood damage (required by many lenders; check with yours)	All wood portions of home (interior and exterior)	$75-$200; negotiable	Repair or replace damaged wood; treat for wood-destroying insects or organisms
Lead (disclosure required on all homes built before 1978)	Presence of lead in paint, plumbing or other areas	$400 for basic survey; negotiable	Repair or replace affected areas
Radon (disclosure of known elevated levels required)	Presence of naturally occurring radioactive gas	$150 for basic survey; negotiable	Seal foundation cracks, install a sump pump; ventilate basement or crawl space.
Environmental hazards (asbestos, formaldehyde, petroleum, toxic chemicals)	Presence of any substance in building material, soil, water or air that poses a health risk	Price varies; negotiable	Remove hazardous material, such as asbestos, or source of danger, such as a buried oil tank.
Soil	Condition of soil under and around foundation and retaining walls	$300 to $2,000; negotiable	Repair or treat problem

Defects and Disclosures

You need to understand defects and disclosures before you evaluate the physical condition of the home you want to buy and decide how much you want to pay for it. If you are a seller, you may want to order a pre-sale inspection to help you prepare your house for sale; be aware that you will have to disclose any significant defect that comes up in the report.

Defects
Pre-purchase home inspections target two kinds of defects: the kind you can see (a patent defect) and the kind you can't see (a latent defect).

Patent defects are easy to spot: for example, water stains, ceiling cracks, sticky windows or sagging floors are patent defects. Latent defects are more elusive because they may be hidden: for example, faulty plumbing, asbestos ceilings or dry rot.

Some defects are trivial; others are more serious. An inspection can help you decide whether you need to act on the defects you find. Whether you are a buyer or a seller, be sure to work out how all defects will be repaired or paid for during contract negotiations.

Disclosure
Disclosure is when a seller or real estate agent reveals a material fact about the physical condition of a property to a buyer.

A material fact is any information that can affect the price of the home or a buyer's decision to purchase it at all, such as spring flooding in the basement or a highway project that will cut through the neighborhood.

Disclosure laws vary by state and range from voluntary seller disclosure to mandatory seller disclosure questionnaires. Some real estate companies also require seller disclosures, and agents can be held legally responsible for not disclosing a vital piece of information about a property.