First Time Homebuyers: Understanding Home Inspection

What You Should Know About Home Inspections

There are very important reasons why every new homebuyer should always have the home inspected before buying. Buying a new home is quite an exciting moment with a rare opportunity to pick floor coverings and paint colors of your choice. In all the excitement of finding and falling in love with a home, and deciding where furniture will go, do not forget to have your new home inspected by a qualified, licensed home inspector.

What will a home inspector examine?

Different inspectors vary in ability, thoroughness and experience, but a home inspector should examine certain elements of the home you want to buy and give a report of his or her findings. Northern California home inspections often note;

  • Which items need repair and which ones should be replaced
  • Whether each problem identified is a safety issue, minor defect or major defect.
  • Items that can be used for now but should be closely monitored

A great inspector will even go further to offer you tips on maintenance that you should consider, which can be of significant help if you are a first-time homebuyer. While it is nearly impossible to list all the components an inspector could possibly examine, the following list should give you a general idea of what you should expect.

Exterior Home Inspection

Exterior walls – the inspector will check for missing or damaged siding, cracks, and if the bottom part of your house is largely in close contact with the soil -which can invite wood destroying insects like termites, a common challenge in the Bay Area and Northern California.
Foundation – foundation issues such as settling or cracks can not be observed if the foundation in not directly visible but typically the foundation is viewable in large part.
Grading – the inspector will observe if the grading slopes uniformly away from the house, as it should to prevent drainage and rot issues.
Roof Inspection – the inspector will examine your roof for evidence of poor installation, damaged or deteriorating compenents including shingles, tiles, flashing, and ventilation which may allow water to enter or prevent proper air exchange in your attic. This may include missing, loose or improperly secured shingles and damaged or cracked flashing around vents.

Interior Home Inspection

Plumbing issues, evidence of faulty electrical wiring, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system health, water heater age and proper installation, kitchen appliances, and fire safety all fall into interior home inspection and the failure to identify an issue can mean serious costs for a potential home owner.

Benefits of Having a New Home Inspected

  1. Negotiate your buying price down basing on the current status of the home if there are issues.
  2. Problems discovered before you purchase your new home can be fixed before you move in, and you don’t have to deal with the inconvenience, noise and dust from repairs, or potentially having to take time off from work to deal with contractors entering your home during the day.
  3. Defects can be taken care of before they result into costly damages or nasty consequences. Additional home inspection services like a Natural Hazard Disclosure Report, help to identify potential or imminent hazards such as active and potentially active faults, landslide potential and liquefaction zones, seismic hazards can be discovered early and allow you to plan to purchase pertinent insurances to cover the potential consequences of hazards.
  4. A home inspection can identify common problems associated with new homes such as missing siding, damaged roof trusses, raised roof shingles, missing insulation, inadequate drainage systems and so forth.
  5. If the problems uncovered during inspection are too big, an inspection report can help you decide if you should opt out of purchase.
  6. Finally, inspection can help you learn about and plan for future maintenance costs.

Find a Respected Certified Northern California Home Inspection Company

HomeGuard’s inspectors are trained and certified. Many inspectors have completed more than 10,000 home inspections and are extremely qualified to inspect your home. Call 855-331-1900 or contact us from our website today to schedule a home inspection, roof inspection, termite inspection, or natural hazard disclosure report. HomeGuard also offers a Value Inspection Package (VIP) which covers home, roof, and termite inspection all-in-one.