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Living a Better Life Buying a New Home? Have it Inspected First!
It seemed like a
wonderful (and beautiful!) home, with a great yard and a great neighborhood...
until the inspection report came back with about $10,000.00 worth of problems
that we'd have to deal with if we continued our plan to purchase it! More...
Thankfully, my husband and I have always ordered a home inspection with each new home we have purchased over the last 20 years, so our current transfer is no different. After finally finding the home we thought would work best for our large family, we ordered the inspection from a professional home inspector and waited (hopefully) for good news.
Unfortunately, the news was anything but good and we had to begin our home search process over again. The good news is that we found another home that was much better than the first, and our second home inspection came back with a green light!
Here are a few things I would like to encourage you to consider when purchasing a new home, regarding the home inspection...
1. Any home, no matter how great it looks, can have problems that only a trained inspector can find. Things like problems with the foundation, the siding, even the ventilation inside the home. We would never buy a home without an inspection and would encourage everyone to do the same.
2. Yes, they are expensive, but they are well worth the money!
3. When you make an offer on a new home (and by new, I mean new or previously owned) you should be able to add a stipulation in the contract that the home inspection must meet your approval; meaning you reserve the right to walk away if it does not. Consult your realtor for information in your local area.
4. We have had many inspections over the years and this is the very first one that caused us to walk away from the home. I think we were in a state of shock for several days, but can you imagine if we had purchased the home not knowing all the problems it had? WHEW!
5. Just because a home is brand new don't think it doesn't need to be inspected. Our realtor told us she recently had a buyer who ordered a home inspection on a brand new house and there were several problems that were found, and were able to be fixed by the builder before closing. Without the home inspection, these things would not have been fixed and could have resulted in further problems later on.
6. Although we generally hire home inspectors that are recommended by our realtors (because our moves are usually out of state), of course you are free to use whoever you wish. NACHI.org (the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors) is also a good source on the Web to locate certified inspectors, and if you have friends or family who have purchased homes in your area they may also have a good inspector to recommend.
7. And finally, even if you are selling a home (instead of buying one) you can hire an inspector to make sure everything is in good condition before you put it on the market. Several years ago, we had a great inspector who told us it's even a good idea to have the home you live in inspected from time to time, to make sure everything is okay.
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Copyright © 2006 by Michelle Jones, author of Dealing with Debt, Frugal Family Recipes and Basic Budget Planning... for Those Who Hate to Budget. All rights reserved. Want more money-saving tips? Get a FREE Subscription to our monthly newsletter!
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