Buying A Home – Details Your General Inspection Won’t Show
If you think a standard home inspection is pretty comprehensive, you may want to think twice. You may be surprised to know these inspections won’t reveal all the flaws a house can have. When your agent hands you the inspection report you’ll quickly notice it doesn’t show particular areas or items if the home inspector could not get entrance or purposely kept out of the report.
When this happens, don’t jump to the conclusion the inspector failed to do a good job. The truth of the matter is an inspection report can’t be fully accurate because the inspector doesn’t have x-ray vision to see through walls, beneath carpets, or dig below the ground. It’s also unrealistic to expect an inspector to check underwater in the pool or spa. Another reason is because there are close to 60,000 items in a house and an inspector can only check out major working parts they have unrestricted access to such as an electric outlet or a window.
Another major limitation is an inspector will only report what they can safely inspect. He or she isn’t required to explore areas where their safety may be jeopardized. One house’s crawl space may have easy access while another house’s may be cramped and wet.
Other circumstances can prevent an inspector from accessing certain areas of a home such as the deceptive seller who purposely stacks boxes to block access to portions of a home. When this happens, ask your real estate agent to contact the seller or their agents and request them to provide access by removing the barricade. If the seller is being uncooperative and refuses to move the items, make a second request stipulating the seller clear the area for a second inspection at their expense.
If your house should feature a pool, hot tub, or sauna, backyard swing set, burglar alarm system, break wall, or dock, the inspector will bypass these during his or her inspection. You might be lucky to see these items as part of your inspection report if the inspector has specialized training in these areas. If you’re considering buying a home that may have potential problems, it’s best you select an inspector who has years of training in those areas.
Finally every house has a different setup of appliances, heaters, water heaters, and other fabricated items-some which could have been recalled due to safety issues. An experienced inspector keeps abreast of these recalls and will document them in their report. For your own peace of mind, do your own research by jotting down the brand, manufacturer, model, serial number and research the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. That way you’ll know if there will be future problems with a prospective house.
If you’re searching for the perfect starter home in Southern California, check out these Anaheim Hills Homes For Sale and use a local Anaheim Hills Realtors to help you find one.
