July 7, 2022

Why a Home Inspection Matters Before You Buy

A few hundred dollars against the largest purchase most people make. What an inspection covers, what it quietly doesn't, and how the report reaches your policy.

Buying a house is the largest purchase most households ever make, and an inspection costs a rounding error against it. That ratio is the whole argument. Skipping the inspection to save a few hundred dollars, or to make an offer look stronger in a fast market, is a trade that goes badly often enough to be worth resisting.

What an inspection actually covers

A competent inspector walks the property and produces a written report with photographs. Expect the review to include:

Heating and central air conditioning
The electrical system
Interior plumbing
Attic, insulation, and ventilation
Roof, walls, ceilings, and floors
Windows and entry points
The foundation and visible structure

The report should say what needs replacement, what's a defect, and what's a safety concern. Those are three different categories, and a good inspector distinguishes them for you.

What it usually doesn't cover

This part surprises buyers. A standard inspection is visual and general. Several common problems need their own specialist and their own fee:

The inside of chimneys and flues
Septic systems
Swimming pools
Asbestos
Pest and termite activity
Toxic mold
Buried oil tanks, which matter more than people realize on older upstate properties
Water quality on a private well

If the house has any of these, budget for the extra test. Finding a failed septic system before closing is inconvenient. Finding it after is a five-figure surprise that's entirely yours.

Sellers benefit too

A pre-listing inspection is worth considering if you're the one selling. You learn the condition of your own house on your own timeline, you can complete disclosure forms accurately, you price with better information, you have time to fix what you choose to fix, and you head off the round of concession requests that a buyer's inspection otherwise produces at the least convenient moment.

Three reasons buyers shouldn't skip it

Contingency protection. An inspection contingency in the contract gives you a defined window to walk away without penalty if something major turns up. Waive the inspection and you waive that door. In a competitive market that waiver gets pitched as a way to win the house. It's also a way to own someone else's deferred maintenance.

A cleaner transaction. Sellers are rarely being deceptive, but they don't always know what's behind the wall either. The inspection puts everyone on the same set of facts. That's true of new construction as well, where it's far easier to get a builder to fix something before the crew has left the site.

Confidence. You'll live in this house. Knowing the roof has a decade left and the panel is sound is worth the fee on its own.

Where the report meets your insurance

Here's the part that gets left out of most inspection articles. The findings feed directly into what a carrier will do with the property.

Roof age is one of the first questions on a homeowners application. So is the electrical service, the age and type of the heating system, and the plumbing. Knob-and-tube wiring, an aging roof, or an older fuse panel can narrow which carriers have an appetite for the house at all, and can change the price meaningfully among those that do.

Which means the inspection report is genuinely useful to us. Bring it when you're setting up home insurance. It lets us market the policy on accurate information, which produces a quote that holds up rather than one that gets corrected after underwriting looks closer. And when the report flags something that's going to be a problem, knowing during the contingency period is far better than learning it a week before closing.

Under contract, or getting close? Start a quote and send the inspection report along with it.

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