So at this point, I've got a house all lined up, some people willing to sell it to me, and I still haven't spent a penny. Tomorrow morning, the floodgates on the wallet open up, and I'll wake up sometime six months from now at a Home Depot Anonymous meeting.
Item: A Home Inspection
Cost: $250-$300 & up.
Why: You went out, armed with your trusty Buyer's Agent, and found the perfect abode to call your own. You even offered up some cash, and the sellers agreed to take it in exchange for what is currenlty their abode.
The very next thing you have to do is get a person who knows how a house works to tell you that the little piece of heaven you're trying to buy actually functions.
Sure, you looked all through the place, and the new carpet and countertops are just to die for, but you probably didn't notice that the supports in the attic are rotting from the leaks in the incorrectly installed shingles. That's probably because you didn't bother to get up under the roof and look, did you? You were too busy on your hands and knees in the crawlspace looking for problems with the HVAC system. Oh, you didn't do that either? A home inspector will, and that's what you pay them for.
This is essentially your one and only chance to make certain that the home you're purchasing is in top working condition, with no outstanding major problems, before you become stuck with it. For a few hundred bucks, you save yourself from getting stuck with a real estate lemon that can cost you tens of thousands of dollars to fix.
As far as I know, there's no "3 Day Lemon Law" in real estate. You close on that uninspected dream house, and that leaky roof and termite-infested basement is yours until you fnd another person to buy it, which will be at a vastly lower price than you just paid for it. Because they'll have it inspected first.
(As far as I know, the house I'm currently looking to purchase is in tip-top shape, but we'll see how it goes tomorrow morning)
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