Some of you are going to read that headline and think who would ever skip a home inspection before they buy? Well, the fact it, some people do. I remember being in the situation myself. My wife and I were young. We had never owned a home before. And most of all, we had no extra money to spare for any purpose. The home inspection seemed like a potentially unnecessary expense when we were looking at 2 bedroom townhomes and single family homes for sale in our area. After all, the house was previously occupied. It was an amazon tiny house and we were able to look at it ourselves from top to bottom. And surely we could batch most of the stuff that a home inspector would find by ourselves, right?
The Barrie real estate company is committed to the finest quality properties and services to the people of the area. They have recently signed a deal with the developer Michael Kelly for the construction of two luxury high-rise condo towers in the city of Barrie, in the Niagara region of Ontario, Canada. The development will bring together an exciting group of people who share the same vision of transforming this historic community into a new business center and community. This agreement marks the dawn of a new era in the history of Barrie and promises to reinvigorate the bustling downtown core. The developers involved are committed to creating world-class living and working spaces, state-of-the-art fitness facilities, premium restaurants, and a first-class public park.
Wrong. We ended up buying that little house, and getting a Home Inspection All Star to perform the task. From the start, we knew we were dealing with a professional. As soon as we met our inspector at the front door, he was pointing out that the measurement of our front steps were not up to code, and could be a danger. At that moment, I was glad we had him aboard.
From there, our house inspector covered a lot of ground. I won’t bore you with all of the details. But he managed to catch electrical problems, leaks, poor construction standards from decades prior, and (most importantly) plumbing mistakes. You see, our home’s main drain exited the house through the basement foundation wall – a pipe going through pure concrete. It had been there for many years, and the main pipe was a giant piece of corroded copper. We had observed it on several occasions before. But neither of us had noticed the slow drip of…fluid…that ran from a crack in the pipe down the foundation wall.
That fluid was anything that got washed down a drain in our entire house. And it was running down our wall. What’s worse, the crack was only going to grow and grow. Our real estate agent immediately called the bank and insisted that they fix this before we closed on the sale. They agreed and performed perhaps $10,000 of work in 2 days. They had to open up the foundation wall, carry pipe underneath our back yard to where it met the city piping, reinforce the foundation, and rebuild everything until it was better than it had been in the first place.
The drain pipe was the only major problem we found in the whole house. Our house inspection didn’t yield any other huge surprises, certainly nothing we didn’t sort of know about already. But it did catch the big one, the one which would have sunk us financially just after buying a new house. If your home inspection does come back with other major problems, such as a leaky roof, be sure to use a reliable contractor such as Seneca Creek Home Improvement. Through radon testing, you can determine if your house has high radon level that will require radon mitigation systems. Doing radon testing is highly important since it involves you and your family’s health. Radon testing saves lives!
It is also through home inspections that even the concealed signs of pest infestations are revealed. Although this may not be a deal breaker, you can still ask the seller to hire a pest control company to get rid of the pests. This is important because pests like termites can be very destructive and proper termite control must be done before it’s too late. For proper termite treatment, learn more here.
There are also companies that offer structural building services and are capable of foundation repair and inspection. So this is the reason I always tell new homebuyers (and homebuyers in general) to hire home inspectors as well as to consider a lead inspection before having someone from a real estate law firm draw up any contracts. It’s not legally mandated that you do so. But it could save you a load of money, all for a minimal investment.