Reading and Understanding your Home Inspection ReportPosted by andy Mccoy on February 19th, 2020 Reading and understanding a home inspection report can often be intimidating and sometimes even a little bit scary. One of the best things you can do to help yourself to understand the inspection report is to have attended the home inspection – or at least to show up near the end of the inspection to talk to the inspector and get the inspector’s overall opinion of the home, and of his/her main concerns about the home. Here are some things that you can do to get the most out of your home inspection report. When you receive and read over your report, you may see many items that are marked as “deficiencies.” This does not mean that the home is falling apart, because most homes (even “good” homes) have multiple deficiencies. If my own home were inspected, several deficiencies would be found because I know that my home is not perfect, and I'm okay with that. I take care of the important stuff and don't worry too much about the small stuff. Don’t let the number of deficiencies on your home inspection report scare you. There may indeed be one or two items that are serious and that need to be addressed. In the worst cases, there may be an item or two that are serious enough to cause you to change your mind about purchasing the home, but this is not the case with most homes. On most inspections that I do, there are a few things that I would recommend to the prospective purchaser to ask to have repaired. The remainder of the items can be dealt with after the home is purchased. There may even be a few items that aren't really worth worrying about at all. Some things to keep in mind when reading over your home inspection report:
If you have any questions after reading the report, your home inspector should be willing to answer or explain anything on the report that you still have questions about. Your real estate agent is also an excellent resource as he or she has likely read through many reports and knows what to look for. There are two types of homes, and they need to be treated differently.
What a home inspection report is and what you should do with it:
What a home inspection report is NOT:
It typically does not include cosmetic defects, and likely does not include every problem/issue with the home since inspectors cannot see into walls and ceilings, behind furniture, under attic insulation and floor coverings, etc. One more thing to keep in mind. A home inspection is not a pass or fail inspection, so there is nothing that causes a home inspection to fail. A home inspection and the subsequent home inspection report simply will show what the current condition of the home is and will allow the prospective buyer to decide if he/she wants to move forward with the purchase or not. Mike Morgan is the founder and owner of Morgan Inspection Services in Abilene, Texas and has been performing home inspections and septic since 2002. He also writes a home inspection blog at www.houseworks.blog and www.thebesthomeinspectioninfo.com Like it? Share it!More by this author |