What Every Buyer Should Know About Home Inspections
I recently reread the inspection report for the house my wife and I bought last January. The experience was strangely comforting.
The report is far more thorough than I remembered, and its 42 pages read like a road map of the little home that I've spent the last 18 months renovating. The inspector, Mike Brancato of MJB Inspections in New Jersey, caught dozens of minor issues that otherwise might have taken me months to address (and in some cases even to notice), such as a missing strike plate on the front door and loose gutters at the eaves. Each issue was accompanied by a photograph and a suggested course of action.
Happily, he found no major problems with the house's critical systems — roof, wiring, plumbing, HVAC, foundation. We bought the house confident that it wasn't a wreck and that none of the repairs we'd need to make would come as a surprise.
That sense of confidence — even if it's the confidence to walk away from a bad deal — is what a home inspection is for. But not every inspector is as meticulous as Mr. Brancato. If you're considering buying a home, there are questions you'll want to ask your inspector, from basic qualifications and experience to all the things they don't inspect for.
Here's how to get a good one.
Prospective home buyers should first familiarize themselves with their state's standards of practice, said Lisa Alajajian Giroux, a Massachusetts-based home inspector and the incoming president of the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI). These typically include the requirements for becoming a licensed home inspector in the state, a code of conduct and ethics, and a list of conditions that every home inspection must assess.
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