A home inspection is an important contract contingency that will provide you the opportunity to evaluate the current condition of the home and determine whether you either want to terminate the contract, negotiate for repairs, or do nothing and purchase the home in it’s current condition. The home inspection process may include professionals that span different competencies:
- The Home inspector -Licensed professionals trained in documenting the condition of the home. These individuals may or may not have specific trade expertise in construction or other elements of the home, but are typically generalists with expertise in identifying maintenance and defective items.
- Plumber – Home inspectors can identify most plumbing issues, but if you are planning on doing a sewer line inspection and your home inspector does not offer that service, you will enlist the services of a licensed plumber to camera scope the sewer line
- Chimney Inspection – If your home has a fireplace/chimney and your home inspector does not offer chimney inspection services, you will have to enlist the services of a company specializing in fireplace/chimney inspections
- Wood destroying inspect inspector – If your home inspector is not licensed in identifying wood destroying insects then, a separate WDI inspection will be conducted by someone who is to determine the active presence of WDI’s and determine if there is any structural damage.
Your home inspection will inspect your home from top to bottom, focusing on aspects of your home that could include (NOTE: The cost for the inspection varies by inspector and what is being inspected. I have marked those aspects of an inspection that are outside the scope of a standard home inspection and will incur an additional expense to have those items inspected).
- Roof
- Windows and doors
- Outlets
- Appliances
- HVAC
- Electrical
- Plumbing
- Fireplace/Chimney – additional cost
- Well and septic – additional cost
- Water quality – additional cost
- Sewer Line – additional cost
- Wood Destroying Insects – additional cost
- Mold – additional cost
- Lead – additional cost
- Radon – additional cost.
In Maryland a home inspection does not focus on the cosmetic aspects of the home. It is only for the purpose of identifying defects.
In addition to identifying defects the home inspector will draw your attention to maintenance items. Maintenance items are outside the scope of making a repair request. They are just identified to help you maintain the home once you own it. For example, if your home has a deck and the inspector indicates that regular staining of the deck will extend it’s life, that is not something you will ask the seller to do in a repair request. Rather, if the home inspector indicates that there are rotted deck boards, then you can ask the seller to replace those rotted deck boards.
It is also important to note, that while age of systems are important for you to consider when buying a home, they are not a pertinent when making a repair request if the system is functional. For example, if the HVAC system is 20 years old and still functioning, you cannot ask the seller to repair the HVAC system.
Be sure to hire a licensed home inspector who is qualified and experienced or other licensed professional if you are having an additional inspection pertaining to a specific aspect of the home.