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Calgary Home Inspections

Subject To Review and Approval of a Home Inspection. A smart buyer’s condition to add to an Offer to purchase of any home. A home inspection is an opportunity to complete more in-depth due diligence. Before waiving conditions to make it a firm deal.

Calgary Real Estate - Home Inspections

Are there any major problems with the home? Serious enough to make you cancel the deal? The Condition Period gives the buyer the opportunity to cancel the deal. The seller is locked in and cannot cancel it. Condition periods are generally for the home buyer’s benefit.

Major problems could be safety, structural, electrical, mechanical or any other serious issue. Often called a walkaway clause. It is quite common for people to rush ahead with an offer without thinking about or seeing serious flaws in the property.

Because Home Inspections are not cheap ($500 and up), the actual home inspector will look for the major walkaway issues but also give you a list of every minor issue as they see it. Much of the report covers the obvious that you already saw before writing the offer. They need to justify the cost. A home inspection to look for major items would only take an hour for most homes.

The minor items that every home inspector likes to list are what can be called a “To Do” list. Almost every home has a “To Do” list. It comes with the home. Get over it!

Don’t for a second think the seller is going to knock anything off the price because the hot water tank is over the industry’s attempt to convince everyone it should be replaced after 10 or 12 years. Or the furnace is passed It’s prime, again, according to the sellers of furnaces.

Home inspections are useful and recommended, but be prepared for a result with no major issues but a page of minor “to-do” items.

You can always try to grind the sellers for a price adjustment after a home inspection. Many people do. But don’t be petty. I’ve had people threaten to walk away if they didn’t get a thousand dollars off a $500,000 deal. I’ve seen sellers who were planning on leaving the buyers something valuable only to change their minds when the buyer squeeze move showed up. I’ll always fight for my buyers if the fight is worth it. Some are, and most aren’t.

Count on a small budget for the “To Do” list. Every home comes with one. Let the sellers know when you make the offer. You are accounting for the “to-do” list upfront. Tell the sellers you wanted to offer five or 10k more, but you noticed a lot of maintenance items you’ll have to take care of. And you know the home inspection will point them out as well. So instead of asking after the home inspection, you prefer to deal with it on the offer.

Home Inspections are for the Buyers Benefit. Don’t try to use it as a hammer to swat a fly.

Can I recommend a decent Home Inspector? Sure, but they change, so call me at 403 831 0842. 

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