First in a series intended for first time home buyers.
Your home inspection. Who should, and should not attend?
SO, you’ve found a house you love and hope to make it into your dream home. You’ve made an offer, it was accepted and now you are under contract. Up next is your home inspection – an important part of the process. But who really needs to be there? If you’re a first time home buyer you might get a lot of advice from different corners – all well intentioned. But we advocate for the KISS method: Keep It Simple….Simon!
Who should attend?
You, as the client, have the right to control who is present at the home inspection. The only person required to be there is the inspector of course. However we strongly recommend that the buyer(s) also attend, buy only for the last hour or so. You have the right to attend the entire inspection but we find it’s helpful for the buyer to come at the end. This gives us time to inspect without too many disturbances while still having face-to-face time at the end to discuss findings and answer questions.
It also can be helpful if the buyer’s agent can also attend but this isn’t always possible due to schedule conflicts but we don’t discourage it. And as an aside, it is also recommended that you, as the client, agree to allow us to share the inspection report with your agent. This is not required and is always your choice but can help expedite matters when it comes to post-inspection negotiations.
Who should not attend?
Sellers and their agents. We say this in both a literal and figurative sense because sometimes the seller(s) will be present on property during the inspection. Maybe one or more works from home. Or a child is sick and stays home from school. But if the seller is on property, they should not be allowed to follow the inspector around and/or eavesdrop on what is being discussed between the inspector and buyer. But also, believe it or not a seller will occasionally ask if they and/or their agent can attend the inspection and the answer in those cases should always be a polite, but firm “No”.
Small children. It is best if you have small children to hire a babysitter or leave them with family or a close friend for the duration of the inspection. This is not only for safety purposes but also if they are present you have a responsibility to watch and supervise them and that can take your attention away from where we really want it – focused on the inspection. If they are a bit older, say 12 and above this may be fine but smaller children are best not attending.
Anyone else without a financial interest involved. This can be a bit tricky. Look, we get it. This is your first home purchase and your family, friends and loved ones are excited for you and want you to “get it right”. Some may want to be present to lend their knowledge from past home buying experiences.
But, this is one of those instances where “too many cooks spoil the broth”. Everyone is well meaning but when you, the buyer, have input coming from too many different directions it can get confusing. It’s important to remember that you hired your agent and us as the inspector for our own experience and expertise. And this is not our first rodeo. So if someone close to you wants to make sure the inspector “doesn’t forget to do x, y, or z” go ahead and write it down and bring it up yourself at the inspection. We’re happy to listen and answer questions. And also, not to be forgotten, we are on a time budget during inspections and having too many present only leads to dragging things out and slowing them down. And as inspectors we don’t want to feel rushed or feel like we have to hurry because we’ve spent too much time talking and not enough time inspecting.
And that’s it! Keeping things simple and pared down will help you stay focused on what really matters – using actionable intelligence to make informed decisions! I hope this was informative for you and if you have questions about this or any other subject involving home inspections drop me a line at br****@***************on.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
In our next installment we’ll talk about how to interpret your home inspection report. Thanks for reading!
#actionableintelligence #informeddecisions #homeinspection
