Is Your Home Inspection Accurate? When To Get A Second Inspection?

There isn’t much in the way of research to tell us how many home inspections may be inaccurate. With 95% of home sale involving an inspection, there must be at least a few inaccurate home inspection reports produced every day. The thing is, how do you know if your home inspection report is inaccurate? And, just as importantly, what do you do if you have a home inspection report that doesn’t give you a reliable picture of the property?

There are both subtle and obvious signs that your home inspection report isn’t giving you the correct information, but, in order to “read” these signs, a buyer or seller must take an active part in the entire sales process.

This includes:

As a buyer:

• Knowing what to look for when you view a home.
• Researching and interviewing home inspectors before hiring one.
• Being clear about the role of a home inspector, their scope of work, and what you should and should not expect to see in the report.
• Utilizing the expertise of your real estate professional.
• As a seller:
• Having a clear picture of your home’s defects before placing it on the market.
• Knowing precisely what a home inspection report should and should not cover.
• Preparing your home to ensure the inspector can do a thorough job.
• Being available to answer questions, point out details, and provide additional evidence for the home inspector.

Signs The Initial Home Inspection Isn’t Accurate
As a buyer, when you go to view a home, you should be on the lookout for the subtle signs that something could be wrong under the surface. By doing so, you are not only arming yourself with the kind of information that will help you make an informed initial offer on a home, but you are also giving yourself a way of assessing the accuracy of the home inspection report.

How To Tell
Well, imagine that you view a home and see several water stains on the inside of the kitchen cabinet under the sink. This could indicate a current or previous water leak, which, in turn,  could be viewed as a warning sign that there may be other problems under or behind the cabinets.

You submit an offer, which the seller accepts and you then commission a home inspection.

Once you receive the report, you see that there are a handful of minor items listed, but the evidence of the water leak is not included. This could be the first warning sign that a home report isn’t accurate.

If you have made a note of a potential defect and this has not made its way into the report, you should wonder what else has been missed.

Another indicator which should raise your suspicions is if the inspection itself takes much less time than it should. The average 1800 square foot home should take somewhere around three hours to inspect. A home inspector who has sprinted through a property much more quickly should raise warning flags over the accuracy of their final report.

Finally, you may be purchasing a home which has already had an inspection, but the sale has fallen through for some reason, so the property is back on the market. In this case, the seller may be under an obligation to disclose any defects discovered the first time around. If they are not in the home inspection report you commission, chances are you should be suspicious that your home inspection report could be inaccurate.