You had the home inspection. Now what?

The offer to purcahse has been accepted and you have had the home inspection performed. So whats next? As you might imagine for both buyer and seller the home inspection can be a hand wringing situation due to the unknown. The biggest misconception is that the home must "pass" the inspection by the inspector. This is not the case. The home inspection is simply for the buyer to be informed of any needed repairs, pest issues, mechanical working of the home, etc. It is up to the buyer to decide if they will accept the home in the condition it's in or ask the seller to make repairs or modify the price to reflect any needed repairs. The inspection contingency is usually a 2nd stage of negotiation and both buyer and seller must be in agreement to proceed with the sale. Hopefully the home is perfect, nothing is found and the inspection contingency is satisfied easily. Of course that is not the norm. Usually a few repair items are found that can be negotiated easily and quickly. Sometimes but not very often – thankfully – a very serious repair item is found. In this situation the inspection contingency protects a buyer from having to purchase a home that needs major repairs that a seller is unwilling or unable to perform.

Lastly remember when negotiating a home inspection the following will effect the strength of both buyer and sellers position – Is it a sellers or buyers market? Are there back up offers? Has the home been on the market a short or long period of time? What type of loan is the buyer obtaining? VA or FHA loans may require certain repairs be done in order to obtain the loan and we are even seeing this with Conventional loans as well.

So take a deep breath, keep all of this in mind and you will successfully get through the inspection process and on to the closing table!