Should I attend my Home Inspection? That’s a question that I get fairly often, and it’s worth talking about here. I’ve talked in previous articles about the Home Inspection Report, which is the final product of a Home Inspection. There are always a few people who think that the Inspection Report is all that matters, “so why bother going to the inspection?”
A few really good reasons why you should attend your Home Inspection;
First off, did you know that the average homebuyer spends about 30 minutes in the home prior to making a purchase offer? Thirty minutes in a home that you’ll be paying a mortgage on for 30 years. A good Home Inspector should spend at least three hours in the home, inspecting and looking for defects that the buyer will simply never have the time to find.
During that three hour inspection, you might choose to follow the Inspector around the whole time, or, do what some other buyers do; take the time to actually check out the house themselves. It’s a good time to talk about where you’ll put furniture, measure rooms and doorways to see where things will fit and maybe sit out back and check out the view a little more.
While this is going on, your Inspector will be hard at work, and will have the ability to show you a serious problem in person if necessary. A good Inspection Report is an amazing tool, but nothing beats seeing the problem in person!
Another good reason to attend your Home Inspection is that it gives you an opportunity to ask the Inspector questions about the home. Maybe you don’t have any questions at the beginning, but there’s bound to be something that comes up as you check the house out a little more. A good Home Inspector will always make time to answer his clients’ questions, and this is your chance to ask them!
From an Inspector’s point of view
I always welcome my clients to attend the inspection, since it gives me a chance to reinforce things with them verbally, and a chance to get a better understanding of the client and their knowledge base. That information allows me to write a better Custom Inspection Report for the client. It’s a “win – win” situation.
For the reasons above, I always encourage my clients to attend their Home Inspection. I’ll warn you, a Home Inspection isn’t always the most exciting thing; most clients get bored following me around for 3-4 hours. Don’t feel bad if you do too! I usually tell my clients that they are welcome to follow me anywhere I go, but they’ll probably get bored after a while and want to explore on their own, so feel free to do so!
by Tom Breslawski, Vesta Home Inspections, LLC