Wednesday, March 5, 2003

Inspect again before closing

Home experts urge buyers to inspect once for the contract, then again just prior to closing

Nearly 80 percent of homebuyers make the smart decision to have a pre-purchase home inspection by a professional home inspector during the initial phase of the contract signing.

"However, what many buyers don't realize is that they should also perform a pre-closing inspection, an additional check of the home, just prior to the closing, which is often several weeks or months after that first home inspection," said Dwight Hurston, NULL-area director of HouseMaster, one of the leading home inspection companies in the U.S. and Canada. "In addition to the home being emptied of the seller's furnishings and floorcoverings, much can happen to a home's systems and structure in the interim, particularly after a harsh winter."

While homebuyers are often encouraged to do a "walk through" with their realtor a day or so before the actual closing date, they often don't know what to look for other than to make sure that fixtures or appliances included in the sale are still there. "They should also be looking for new problems that may have developed or may have been previously unobservable," advised Hurston. "It's quite possible that problems or defects may be undetected during the first inspection for various reasons, the most likely one being that furnishings or rugs were unintentionally hiding them.

"Perhaps there was a large armoire or entertainment center against a wall blocking evidence of a leak, a roofing problem hidden beneath a foot of winter's freshly-fallen snow or a basement packed to the brim with the seller's boxes and old furniture, making settling cracks hard to see," explained Hurston, whose franchises have collectively performed more than one million home inspections since 1979. "These problems would have been difficult or even impossible to detect during the initial inspection."

A growing trend

To avoid any surprises, more and more homebuyers are electing to bring their inspector along on this "walk through" so he can check for things that may not be evident to the untrained eye. A buyer may easily spot the evidence of a leak, but the seriousness of that leak or a roofing or other systematic/structural problem might not be detected, nor understood, without the presence of a trained home inspector who can often analyze the problem on the spot.

"A pre-closing inspection is basically a modified home inspection, and is recommended to help further limit any surprises just before taking ownership. Once you own the house, the problem becomes your problem and your unexpected, added expense on top of everything else," added Hurston.

Hiring an inspector to perform a pre-closing inspection is more commonly done when some of the systems or areas of the home were originally unobservable, or more than 30 to 60 days have elapsed since the original inspection. Generally, a HouseMaster inspector will charge about $100-$150 to perform a pre-closing inspection on a home he previously inspected a small investment that may possibly save thousands of dollars in the long run.

"A pre-closing inspection can provide additional peace of mind and a last recourse to find costly, hidden problems within the home or property. It is like your last bargaining chip," concluded Hurston.

For those buyers who opt to re-inspect the home without the actual inspector, the home experts at HouseMaster have created a new pre-closing checklist. By following this checklist, the buyer knows exactly what to check for during this important step in the closing process.

For a free copy of the HouseMaster Pre-Closing Checklist, you can visit www.houseamaster.com/preclosing or call the NULL-area office at 770-537-0155.

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