Why Foregoing a Home Inspection Could Cost You Thousands Down the Road

There are many great Lafayette area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (337) 267-4099 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

If you plan on purchasing a home, or if you're interested in learning more about the process, you need to be familiar with how home inspections work. 

Once you and the seller agree on the price and terms of the transaction, we go through what's called an inspection period. This is typically a 10-14 day period after an agreement is reached. During that time frame, it's your duty as a buyer to do your due diligence to ensure the home is exactly as you expect it to be. 

We usually commission a general home inspection as well as a termite inspection. The job of the inspector is to look for symptoms - leaks, breaks, and other defects - that affect a home's value. If any problems are found, we call a specialist to give further detail about the extent of the damage. Once that's done, it's time to negotiate the repairs. The cost of defects could be subtracted from the sales price, the closing costs, or there could be an exchange of cash at the closing table. 

People often wonder whether it's necessary to have a home inspection for a new home. New homes Even new homes can have water penetration issues, or a faulty foundation. Sometimes, buyers just want to walk through the home with the builder and correct any small errors they find. It's great to find and correct cosmetic issues, but the big, costly defects are often the ones you can't see.  are built by humans, and humans make mistakes. 

An inspection will help you identify those defects before it's too late. Home inspections are important, and more than worth it, because of the money they save you down the road. Taking care of big defects is a lot cheaper if they are addressed early. 

If you have any questions about this process, or about buying or selling real estate in general, give us a call or shoot us an email. We would love to hear from you!