 Selling a home can be stressful! Adding to this stress is the buyers home inspection process.
Typically: 1. Seller places their home on the market 2. Buyer makes an offer 3. Seller accepts 4. Buyer hires an independent home inspection 5. Inspector finds a few things wrong 6. The buyer asks for it to be repaired 7. Then the seller and buyer go back and forth debating on who will fix what and how much 8. Hopefully the deal closes on time If that sounds like a strange order of events you are right! It is! Only about 3 percent of all home sellers elect to get their own pre-listing home inspection. A pre-listing home inspection is the seller’s best defense in a home sale. Knowledge is power so why would you want to give all the knowledge of your homes function and safety in the buyer’s hands? What if the order looked more like this: 1. Seller hires their own independent home inspector 2. Seller reviews the inspection and makes repairs accordingly (or even if no repairs are made the seller has the knowledge of their homes condition.) 3. Seller places their home on the market 4. Buyer makes offer 5. Seller accepts offer 6. Buyer gets their own independent home inspector 7. Inspector finds a few things wrong, but the seller knows of these things OR they did not find much wrong and the inspection is great because problems were all previously repaired 8. Buyer and seller are happily sitting at the closing table, on time and on budget! A Few Misguided Thoughts Thought: What if the home inspector finds something significantly wrong with my home? Answer: If there is something truly significantly deficient in your home (foundation, etc) it will come out during the buyer’s inspection or bank appraisal. This will either kill the sale or back you into a corner making last minute big ticket repairs from anyone who can get it done in the limited timeframe. Thought: Maybe the buyer won’t get an inspection, and I shouldn’t waste money fixing things. Answer: Around 80 percent of buyers in the Clarksville area get their own independent home inspection. Why compete for the 20 percent of buyers in the market when you market to 100 percent or them? Getting a home pre-inspected before its listed puts the seller in the driver’s seat. Zumbro Home Inspection (931) 278-5400 www.zumbrohomeinspection.com The VA Inspection Myth As a former service member myself, I have bought a few homes using my VA mortgage benefit. This program is an amazing benefit to qualified service members, but I have witnessed a huge misconception over and over again while inspecting homes in the Clarksville, Tennessee area. I have noticed a few real estate agents, mortgage officers, and buyers advise or decided NOT seek an independent home inspection by a licensed inspector because they have been told an inspection is part of the VA appraisal process. There is an inspection provision in the VA loan program ordered by the mortgage company, but this is very different from an actual home inspection. The VA Appraisal “inspection” Part of the VA loan process will require a VA appraisal which will review value and make an assessment based on the VA’s Minimum Property Requirements (MPR). Many buyers and unfortunately real estate professionals confuse the MPR for an actual home inspection. Let’s look at a few requirements in the MPR. Does the MPR require the air conditioning to work? Nope. Does the MPR require the home to have heat? Yes, BUT it is only required to heat the home to 50 degrees. You read that right! The MPR for the VA “inspection” only requires the heat to keep your home above 50 degrees. The electrical and plumbing system is also required to be “safe” as a whole. There can be many deficient portions of the electrical or plumbing system, but if the system as a whole is felt to be “safe” that meets the MPR. This is just a few examples of how low the bar is for evaluating a home using the VA minimum property assessment. You could be buying a home with a dysfunctional air conditioner, roof which is ready to fail in the next two years, and improper plumbing connections ready to burst, but could easily pass the VA minimum property requirement assessment. Home Is A Home Inspection Different? In Tennessee you typically have the ability to hire your own independent home inspector to conduct a comprehensive inspection on your behalf. Tennessee inspectors are licensed, regulated by the state, and insured. The two biggest differences between a VA appraisal and a home inspection is the client and scope. In a VA appraisal the client is actually the VA and mortgage company, not you. With a home inspection the client is YOU! A VA appraisal “inspection” is limited to the very loose guidelines of the minimum property requirement. A home inspection covers over 500 home components including; structural system/foundation, exterior, roof system, plumbing system, electrical system, heating system, cooling system, interior, insulation and ventilation, fireplaces and solid fuel burning appliances.
Never let someone tell you there is no need to hire your own inspector because the VA appraisal is an inspection. Zumbro Home Inspection 931-278-5400 www.veteransunited.com/valoans/understanding-the-vas-minimum-property-requirements/ www.zumbrohomeinspection.com/index.html  In an alarming number of homes I inspect in the Clarksville area both new and old there is a safety defect which is deadly yet easy to correct. Anti-tip brackets are only installed on approximately 50 percent of free standing ranges I have found. Anti-tip brackets are a small metal anchor which prevents the range from tipping forward and falling on a person (mostly children) if weight is applied to an open door.
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Clarksville Tennessee Home Inspectors Daily BlogAuthorJesse Zumbro is the owner and inspector of Zumbro Home Inspection. A Clarksville, TN based home inspection company. Archives
May 2019
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