With rising prices in every aspect of our lives, it is wise to spend your money efficiently. The old saying “buying a home will be the biggest investment in your life” is true. Home prices have risen drastically in the past 2 years. With this the amount of buyers as also increased, also to add an influx of people infiltrating other states putting a huge strain on local markets. With an increase of people looking for homes and a limited amount of home for sale, this is causing quit a problem to get into a home. So, what are people doing to gain the edge to purchase a home, some are finding ways to pay cash and removing the appraisal contingency. We are finding most are removing the home inspection contingency. This is fine if you HAVE the cash, for future repairs, but this getting into starter homes, with limited cash or are stretching due to the high cost of the house, this can be a big problem. You are stuck with any and all issues. We are also finding that Realtors are adding fuel to the fire by requesting removal of home inspections on offers. This is just going bad to worst real fast. We feel this is unethical in the Real Estate profession. Our jobs as home inspectors were created from the Real Estate profession years ago due to the fact they were getting sued by home owners. Looks like we are going down the same patch as before. Less home inspections and properties in poor condition that are setting up legal issues. Do we not learn from the past?

Things you can do to help yourself:

1. We highly recommend you have an inspection contingency in your offer to purchase.  We know you may “loose out” on the house of your dreams, but we feel very strongly that if a listing agent is stating “your offer looks good, you just need to remove the inspection contingency”, don’t you feel they are hiding something?
2. Some buying agents are putting higher dollar amounts on the inspection contingency.  What this means is you are not going to nickle and dime the seller for minor issues.   You are mainly concerned about Roof, Structure/Foundation and Mechanical.  Things like GFCI issues you will fix yourself.  We feel this is what an inspection is mainly about anyway.  Get good info  about the house, some suggest for improvement and repairs and make sure the “big ticket” items are good.
3. If you end up purchasing the home without an inspection, we recommend a “post-inspection”.  Have an inspector come through the house and submit a report.  This we you can have peace of mind on any issues at hand, repair any immediate issues and prepare for future repairs/improvements.

We hope this helps.  These are unprecedented times, keep your heads up, think smart and give us a call if you have any questions, even if your looking at a house with a Realtor and you feel suspicious about something.  Get an answer before you make the biggest mistake of your life!