Do you remember buying your first home? We bet that there was a certain glamor to the process. We bet there was practically a red carpet at your front door, as you crossed the threshold and used your keys for the first time. Unfortunately, since that date, we can also bet that many less glamorous things have happened as well. The first time that your toilet clogged? The first fall when your Saturdays were devoted to cleaning up those piles of leaves, which just always seemed to multiply by the next day, anyways! Though there are these less glamorous elements to home ownership, they’re just as important. And today, we’re discussing one which is very central to the services that we offer. That, our friends, is the home inspection.

There are several different sorts of home inspections. Some are necessary before you even buy your home. Others are managed on a regular cadence from day zero, through the day that you sell your home. Building inspections can uncover many signs of foundational damage, which- as you can imagine, are red flags to the team here at Restumping Melbourne. Home inspection uncovers many defects in both the interior and exterior of a property. These include faulty roofs, structural cracks and long term dampness. A subset of these inspections can also uncover more specifics like termite damage. At the end of the day, the inspector will prepare a Property Inspection Report which will need to pass criteria set by the Australian Standard.

Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise, these types of inspections are worth every penny. Making a small investment by covering the costs of home inspection now, can mean that you are saving hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, later on down the line. In general, a building inspection will cost at least a couple hundred dollars. You can look into combining inspections like building and pet, which can save money-rather than holding separate inspections with different vendors. A single, general inspection can take 2-3 days. When bundled, inspections can take up to a week in some instances.

A couple other specifics to keep in mind include when to arrange for your inspections, what they don’t cover and who is qualified to execute these inspections. First up- timing. Building inspections carry the most value prior to buying a property, during what’s called “the cooling off period.” It’s necessary to complete inspections before contracts are exchanged, otherwise you don’t have any leverage to barter down the price of the property. If you’ve already exchanged contracts, you’ll want to look into your “cooling off rights.”

Inspections cover the costs of inspecting, and that’s it. They don’t cover the costs of the repairs which they recommend that you complete. Part of their value, is that they’re an extraneous, third-party vendor, meaning that they don’t have any skin in the game and their opinions are objective.

Finally, who is qualified to complete these inspections? Just as these inspections become like a type of insurance for homeowners, so too must inspectors carry some type of insurance. Make sure that the individual or company that you’re working with, is fully insured- just in case something goes wrong.

You’ve now completed the 101 course for Home Inspections. Questions? Feel free to reach out to the Restumping Melbourne team. We’d love to help.