In today’s buyer’s market home sellers are looking for every advantage they can get to sell their homes. One trick that you see or have seen if you have been looking for a home already is a copy of an already performed Termite Inspection Report, or other types of inspection reports like a roof inspection or a radon test. This is a helpful service but can you really trust these reports as a home buyer?
I liken the offer of an already completed report to that of a used car salesman saying something like: “Of course the car is in good shape – trust me.” If you a prudent home buyer making sure that your money is being spent wisely, you can’t necessarily trust the reports put in front of you by a seller or a seller’s real estate agent. Why not?
For starters, the report was paid for by the home seller not you. So the findings of the report could have a slant towards the home being in decent shape when in fact the home needs repairs. You may be thinking that if the Inspector lied or didn’t tell the complete truth on their report that you may have grounds for some legal action against either the Inspector or the seller if damage is found later. This isn’t the case however.
The Inspector was hired by the seller therefore the Inspector has a responsibility to the home seller - not you or any other prospective buyer. Basically the Inspector was under contract by the seller to perform the inspection which means it could be a good inspection, a bad inspection, or somewhere in between.
Trust But Verify A Home Seller’s Inspection Report
There are several ways to trust an inspection report.
- The first would be just to take it as accurate and one that you should abide by. While this isn’t advisable, it is an option for you, and many people do it.
- Another option is to call the same inspector to come out and walk you through the inspection for a fee showing you all around the house as a result of the inspection. The inspector could point out problem areas to you as you went around.
- A third way would be to get your own inspection. Your own inspection would technically cover you in getting a “fair” report that you could make some intelligent home buying decisions around. It would also give you some grounds for legal action if on the off chance that the report that you had done was in fact wrong. You could go after the inspector that you hired at a later date as appropriate.
- A fourth way would be to ask your real estate agent if they know if the home seller’s inspection was from a reputable upstanding company and did they feel like the report was a good one. Again, you would have to trust your agent.
Why Would A Home Seller Get Inspections When Selling Their Home?
There are two trains of thought on this. The first idea for getting these inspections is to provide some basis for their asking price for their home. If the home seller doesn’t want to make repairs to their property and want to sell it as is, then providing property conditions reports to prospective home buyers could be sufficient evidence and incentive to a home buyer to make a purchase offer.
The second reason why a home seller might get upfront inspections is to hide something that they know about the home and don’t want to disclose. I hate to say it, but some homes have their problems and home sellers know it. In an act of desperation a home seller might be inclined to hide a defect with the home with either not disclosing it at all or by getting some inspection report that doesn’t mention the defect. This isn’t a nice situation for a new home seller to be in, but it does happen.
The bottom line here is to get your own inspections if you have found a home, put in an offer and had that offer accepted. Once your offer has been accepted, you have a window of opportunity to get your inspections completed to ensure that you are getting the home in the condition that you expect it to be in. If you find that there are problems with the home during the inspection period then you’ll have options about what to do about it because of the contingency clauses in your purchase offer. Good luck and happy home buying.
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