Today’s real estate market is extremely competitive and inventory is low. As a result, many home buyers are waving their right to a home inspection in order to make their purchase offer more attractive to the sellers. Here at Strong Foundations Home Inspections, we do not recommend this practice but the current real estate market in southeastern PA is forcing buyers to make compromises.
So What Are My Options As a Buyer?
To assist home buyers who choose to waive their home inspection contingency, we offer a House Showing Consultation. This is a consultation where we will walk through the interior and exterior of a home with a potential home buyer to share our observations and potential concerns about the home. House Showing Consultations will be limited to the time slot allotted for the scheduled showing of the house.
Our clients are encouraged to take notes during this consultation. We strongly recommend that our clients get a full home inspection if they purchase the home.
House Showing Consultation Details
The time length of this consultation will be same as the time frame alotted for the client’s scheduled showing of the house which is typically 30 minutes to 1 hour. It should ideally should take place with the real estate agent and client present during a scheduled showing.
Tools Used By the Inspector
A flashlight. Keeping in mind that a house showing consultation is not a home inspection, we will not be carrying or using our full array of inspection tools. No ladder to inspect the attic or get up on the roof, no tools to remove the cover to the circuit breaker panel, no moisture meter on water stains. Doing otherwise may upset some home sellers. The house showing consultation is not a home inspection.
What Does a House Showing Consultation Cover?
We will get to as much of the house as possible given the limited time frame of the showing. If the buyers have specific concerns they would like us to focus on, we will be flexible and do our best to accommodate their requests. We ask the buyers or their real estate agent to provide us with a copy of the sellers disclosure statement before the consultation begins.
Pricing
The house showing consultation fee forthe first house is $125.00 and $75.00 for each subsequent house provided these showings are scheduled back-to-back on the same day and the distance from one house to the next is less than 5 miles.
Scheduling
We accompany the real estate agent and the home buyer at the showing but we do not set up the showing ourselves. We ask the buyer’s agent to notify the seller’s agent that a home inspector will be accompanying them during the showing, but will only be there to walk and talk. As noted, the home inspector will not be performing a home inspection.