Professional Home Inspections

The professional home inspection should be a thorough, methodical look at a property. It can help a home buyer make a sound investment and avoid financial disaster. A soft real estate market in many parts of North America may be causing some home buyers to hold off on a home purchase, hoping for lower prices down the road. However, the lower demand for homes may mean that sellers are more motivated to repair defects found in a professional home inspection and possibly even lower their asking price.

A professional home inspection is much more than a walk-through of a house, flipping on light switches, turning on the kitchen tap and occasionally poking a head into a closet or storage area. A professional home inspection should be a comprehensive, room-by-room look at the house -- both inside and outside -- to determine if there are any major concerns with the visible structural elements of the home and if all the major systems such as heating and plumbing are in working order. A simple walk-through, or cursory inspection of the property will never provide the home buyers with the detailed information they need to make an intelligent purchase decision. In fact, a properly performed professional home inspection should take at least two hours.

In addition to learning more about what they are buying, prospective home buyers also learn much about the care and maintenance of the home during the inspection. HouseMaster, with franchise locations serving nearly 380 cities throughout the U.S. and Canada, provides each client with a unique Inspection Resource Guide, which provides clients with repair statistics from almost 2000 HouseMaster home inspections so home buyers can compare the findings in their report with that of a similarly aged home. This information helps add value to the report finding and encourage home buyers to budget for future repair expenses.

When all is said and done, and regardless of the state of the real estate market, a professional home inspection is key to getting the right house at the right price.