"Door County Real Estate" by: Kevin Nordahl, REALTOR®

Home Inspections - Part I

It’s time to take out the white gloves and get down the business of your home inspection. As a part of many residential offers to purchase, the home inspection assures the buyers that they are getting everything they are paying for. It also allows for a comfortable night’s rest during the course of the transaction, knowing the walls are not going to cave in prior to closing.

There are many special advantages to conducting a home inspection. The first, the home inspection contingency called for in the standard WB-11 Residential Offer to Purchase will provide that a licensed home inspector conduct the exam. Wisconsin licensed home inspectors must pass rigorous training standards on every element of a home’s construction. This assures consistency and professionalism and the knowledge base necessary to perform the tasks correctly.

All homeowners who have lived in their homes at one point in time are required to complete their own Property Condition representations. This report is NOT a home inspection. Such a report is a “best-of-their-knowledge” type of record based upon their personal experience with the property. The home inspection studies matters far more in depth.

As a rule, any agent should recommend a home inspection because it further indemnifies their clients from future liability. So why don’t sellers have a home inspection done before hand? If a seller were to pay for and provide a home inspection prior to obtaining a contract there are many risks and rewards. The risk is that a major item such as bad roofing or a rotted sill plate (that the house stands on) may need replacing. This would be an item that could sneak up on a seller without their being aware of it, pose a significant cost to repair and make the property harder to market for sale. Thereby, the seller would have to fund repairs prior to putting their house on the market and still have no guarantee the property will actually sell.

If providing a home inspection prior to listing your house for sale is still something you feel you “must do,” then go to the extra effort to have a contractor (or two) bid on repairs and incorporate those bids into any promotional materials you use to market your house.

By waiting until the property has been successfully negotiated it will be easier for buyer and seller to work from the results of a home inspection on any significant defects found in a report, obtain quotations from qualified contractors to repair the work and negotiate a settlement for repairs and the associated costs at the closing table instead.

Additionally, by working directly with the home inspector and paying for the inspection, the buyer has the comfort in knowing that the home inspector is employed by them and will be working for them to find any/every issue the house has to pose.

Next: What’s covered in a home inspection?

Kevin Nordahl is a life-long resident of Door County, a REALTORŪ and a member of the Door County MLS. He is a Past President of the Door County Board of REALTORS® and a Senior Sales Consultant at Coldwell Banker Door County Horizons in Fish Creek. He may be reached online at knordahl@doorcountyrealestate.com or by phone at (920) 493-4004.

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