After much searching, you finally find your dream home. It’s perfect…or is it? What if problems lurking beneath the surface transform your dream home into a nightmare? A home inspection tips you off to any potential problems with the house, enabling you to either make a more educated offer or avoid the purchase of a money pit.

What exactly does a home inspection involve?
With a home inspection, a certified home inspector evaluates the home. He (or she) meticulously walks through the house, checking out its physical condition, structure, the construction, and mechanical systems. He or she looks to identify any problems with the home. With a home inspection, you also find out the age and condition of your things like your home’s heating system, central air conditioning system, plumbing, and electrical system, as well as structural components. You don’t want to sweat out the first heat wave because you bought a house with a broken down air conditioning system. A home inspection can let you know if any of those systems are on their last legs.

Do I really need to pay for a home inspection?
Home inspections are not cheap. A typical inspection (depending on your geographic area) can cost upwards of a few hundred dollars. Money can be tight when purchasing a home and you may ask why you should spend even more on an inspection when you have already fallen in love with the home? There is nothing that can end a love affair quite like finding out that you bought a lemon. And that’s where the home inspection helps. The inspector has no emotional attachment to the house, so he has no problem pointing out its faults. Home inspectors are paid to be objective. In addition, home inspectors are trained to understand home construction, maintenance, and safety.

But, what about your real estate agent? Surely you can save money by letting your agent point out potential problems. Well, real estate agents are trained to help you buy a home, but they are not experts in the structure and systems of a home. Your agent may be able to suggest cosmetic fixes, but no agent would want to be liable for evaluating the state of a home’s plumbing or the lifespan of the roof.

When should you order a home inspection?
Once you have a signed purchase agreement or purchase contract on a house, you should line up an inspection. But before you sign a purchase offer be sure that it contains an inspection contingency. This will allow you flexibility to renegotiate the terms of the deal if the inspection turns up a lot of problems. Such contingencies generally state the inspection must take place within a certain time frame. Make sure you are aware of these time limits when setting up your home inspection.

On the day of inspection, the inspector spends a few hours carefully going through the house and then, usually within no more than 72 hours, provides you with an inspection report. Based on this report, you can request that the seller make all or some of the repairs; renegotiate the sales price based on the cost of repairs; or, if there are major problems with the property, you may be able to void the contract (depending on the terms of your contingency).