5 Real Examples Why You Must Get a Home Inspection Before You Buy

Even if the current home owner has provided you with a valid and certified home inspection report by a licensed home inspection provider, you still need to invest in a pre purchase home inspection yourself.

Any reasonable person selling their home will invest in a pre sale home inspection report. That should be expected. If they don’t have one, then think twice. Now you have a copy of their report, it’s time to get your own pre purchase inspection report.

This is not the same as a property appraisal, it is a legally certified written document stating the current condition of the home in question. In other words, you will know if something is really wrong with the house. You’ll be able to negotiate purchase price, and you will know when to walk away really fast.

Here are some common examples of what most of us don’t see, and what a trained home inspection expert could uncover -- specific to British Columbia.

These are reasons to walk away from that purchase as fast as you can...

1. The home was used to grow a marijuana crop.
   All the cleaning in the world won’t remove the mould inside the walls and inside the structure of the house. It will come back soon and you will never get rid of it. The repair bills are endless.
2. The home’s exterior cladding is seriously suspect.
   It’s easier to spot cladding that hasn’t been installed right, than it is to know if the cladding is the best kind. BC’s leaky condo crisis is well understood by expert home inspectors in British Columbia. Water damage to the property is probably extensive and in most cases forget about buying that home.
3. Finished basement cover-up.
   It’s great to have all that extra room for an office or man cave, but finished basements are the best way to cover up serious foundation issues. You’re looking at serious repair bills you can’t even see yet. A good inspector will spot foundation problems in an instant and will be able to tell you the repair bill. You’re looking at $5,000 to $30,000 at least.
4. The wiring is dodgy.
   You won’t find this one out until you plug-in the Christmas tree lights and you blackout the neighbourhood. DIY jobs that shouldn’t have been done are more common than you think. Be extremely wary of older homes. Rewiring is going to cost around $1,000 a room at minimum.
5. Dangerous decks.
   DIY decking has boomed in popularity. There’s nothing like that extra relaxation and entertainment space. Skilled contractors understand structural requirements. Amateurs and DIY guys without experience don’t. When a deck collapses, it is always in the news. Just do a search on Google. A DIY addition can turn into a fatally bad buy.

If you just want to ask our chief inspector, Lloyde Kenzle, a question on anything to do with home maintenance and home inspections, he is more than happy to oblige. It is very hard to set a fixed price for home inspections and home maintenance programs. However, we do our best to provide a reliable quote online. The more information you provide helps us with an accurate quote. 

If you have images, photos and other bulky documents, please upload them to Google Documents or DropBox and share the link in the details box below. No question is too small or silly to ask. Lloyd spends a couple of hours at his desk each afternoon after managing the days projects and will reply to you as soon as possible.

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Need more information and have questions? Contact C4U Inspections today