How did I save $5000 with a home inspector.

Home Inspection Story of the Week #1

Mike Johnston bought his home when he was only twenty years old on the advice of his brother, who insisted that homes were a great way to make money. What his brother didn't mention, of course, is that without a home inspection by a qualified home inspector, Mike would certainly have lost big time on his new investment.

Mike’s real estate agent had shown him about twenty homes before he decided on one. The agent kept mentioning what a good price the home was, and Mike was fairly naive--he thought “hey, I'm getting a great deal, here!” But before he made an offer, he hired a local home inspector that his parents recommended and took a second tour of the house.

On the first floor alone, the home inspection saved him about a thousand dollars, as the home inspector pointed out a poor gas line, two bad outlets, and a minor plumbing issue that Mike certainly, and admittedly, wouldn't have discovered (and as the son of a plumber, he considers that quite a feat). Outside the house, the home inspector pointed out a poorly reinforced deck, which knocked about $500 off the cost of the home after negotiations were underway.

In the home's basement, though, the home inspection really exceeded its cost as the inspector casually noted that the basement would flood occasionally.

"What do you mean?" Mike said. "They said that this basement was recently waterproofed."

The home inspector replied that maybe it had been--but the waterproofing system that surrounded the basement led to one of the closets, where there was nothing to suck the water out of the house. There were light signs of mold on the walls, and the home inspector noticed a patch of damp carpet that led him to follow the waterproofing line through the house. At some point while the current family had occupied the house, someone had obliviously removed the sump pump!

If Mike had bought the house without a good home inspection, this would have been a huge deal. He had planned to put his master bedroom in the basement, complete with thousands of dollars worth of guitars and other instruments that he collects. All of them would have been ruined with the first major downpour.

When Mike first hired the home inspector, he thought of the process as unnecessary, a waste of about $200. At the end of the home inspection, though, he was happily writing the check. All in all, Mike was able to negotiate about $5000 off the price of the house due to the necessary home repairs, which would have otherwise come out of his pocket.