What should I expect during a home inspection?

If you are buying your first home, you have probably heard that you need a home inspection. You may also be wondering what actually happens during one.

• Does the house pass or fail?
• Do you need to be there for four hours?
• What happens if the inspector finds something wrong?
• Does the seller have to fix it?
• And perhaps the biggest question of all: “Would you buy this house?”

After nine years and hundreds of homes, I have learned that a good home inspection is less about giving you a simple yes-or-no answer and much more about helping you understand what you are actually buying. Here is what you can expect.

If you would rather have the short version of any of those questions, our home inspection FAQ answers each one in a paragraph.

A home inspection is not a pass-or-fail test

This is probably the biggest misconception I run into. A home inspection is not like taking your car for a state inspection, where you either pass or fail.

My job is to provide professional observations about the condition of the house. I am looking for the things that may matter to you as the buyer — material defects, safety concerns, significant repairs, and conditions that could result in substantial expense.

You are the one in the driver’s seat.

I do not decide whether you should buy the house. You do. One buyer might look at a particular repair and think, that is more than I want to deal with. Another buyer might look at the same repair and think, I can handle that. Both buyers can make perfectly reasonable decisions.

InterNACHI’s Standards of Practice — the standards my inspections follow — describe a home inspection as a non-invasive visual examination of accessible areas, based on observations made on the date of the inspection. It is not a prediction of future conditions, and it is not intended to reveal every issue that exists or could ever exist.

So when you receive a report with defects in it, try not to read that as the house failed. The better question is: now that I know about these things, what do I want to do about them?

What actually happens on inspection day

For a typical home inspection I arrive in the morning and spend roughly three to four hours on site, depending on the size, age, condition and accessibility of the home. You do not need to be there for all of it — many buyers arrive toward the end, for the walkthrough.

While I am there I am working through the accessible portions of the property and its systems, looking at the house as a whole and trying to answer questions like these:

• Are there significant safety concerns?
• Are there expensive repairs the buyer needs to know about?
• Are there signs of moisture intrusion?
• Are there structural concerns?
• Are the major systems operating as intended, based on what can be observed?
• Is there anything that should receive further evaluation?

If the house has an accessible crawl space, I inspect it. If the attic is accessible, I inspect it. I am not simply walking through the living room looking at paint and countertops — I am looking underneath, above, around and inside the readily accessible areas of the home.

There are limits to that, and they matter. A standard inspection is not a destructive investigation. I am not going to tear into walls, dismantle components, move all of the seller’s furniture, or crawl into an area that is not safely accessible just to see what is behind it.

A good inspection is not the one that finds the most things. It is the one that helps you understand the things that matter.

The walkthrough is one of the most valuable parts

When I have finished inspecting, I meet with the buyer to walk through what I found. If I have noted 30 or 40 items of concern, I am not going to stand there and read all 40 to you one at a time. I prioritize.

I generally have what I think of as my top five, sometimes my top ten. Safety issues rise toward the top. After that come significant or potentially expensive repairs, and conditions that deserve further investigation. Then there are the ordinary maintenance items — a missing switch plate, something that needs adjustment, a relatively minor plumbing repair. Those still go in the report, but they do not need to dominate your walkthrough.

I want you to leave understanding these are the things I really need to pay attention to — not there are 47 things wrong with this house.

Every house has something wrong with it. When you hire an inspector, you are shining a very bright light on a house, and things that might never have crossed your mind suddenly become visible. That does not mean the house is bad. It means you are getting information.

Should you attend?

You do not need to spend three or four hours following me around the property, but I strongly encourage buyers to attend the walkthrough if they can. There is something different about standing in the house and seeing the issue in person.

A photograph in a report is useful. But when I am standing beside you saying here is the concern, here is where the water is coming from, and here is what it is affecting, you begin to see how the components of the house interact. That is much harder to get from a photograph alone.

The walkthrough is also your opportunity to ask questions. How serious is this? What would you do next? Who would I contact to have this evaluated? Do not be afraid to ask.

Major problems are usually not obvious at a showing

You walk into a house. The kitchen looks great. The floors look great. The furniture looks great. You start imagining where your couch is going to go, and before long you are emotionally attached.

That is understandable, but I would encourage you to keep your heart out of the decision until after the inspection. I have had buyers arrive for a walkthrough and spend the first 30 minutes telling me how much they love the house, and then I have to tell them about a major problem. That is a difficult conversation. Try not to fall in love with the house before you know what you are buying.

Sometimes a finding is a roadmap, not a reason to walk away

I once inspected a house that had essentially no attic ventilation. The result was a home that stayed hot in the summer, along with other energy-related concerns. The buyer was not particularly alarmed by it. What the inspection gave them was a roadmap — they now understood what they could do to improve the home’s efficiency and comfort over time. That is a perfectly legitimate outcome.

And sometimes it gives you something to negotiate with

Another buyer was concerned about the structural condition of an older home. They had noticed some sloping floors and asked me to pay close attention to the structure. While inspecting the basement, I found that an HVAC contractor had cut portions of structural joists to install ductwork.

That was certainly a concern, but it was not insurmountable. The buyer raised it with the seller, and the seller agreed to make the repairs before closing.

Finding a defect does not automatically mean the deal is dead. It may mean:

• the seller repairs it
• the buyer negotiates a price adjustment
• the buyer requests further evaluation
• the buyer accepts the condition
• or, in some cases, the buyer decides to walk away

What a home inspection does not cover

Some buyers assume an inspector will find absolutely everything wrong with a house. That is not how a standard home inspection works.

It is a visual, non-invasive examination of accessible areas. It does not involve opening walls or dismantling systems to look for hidden defects, and InterNACHI’s Standards of Practice state plainly that concealed or latent defects are outside what a standard inspection can identify.

Access, and the seller’s belongings

Some areas are simply not accessible. Some crawl spaces are too low for a person to safely enter, and if I cannot physically get into an area, I cannot inspect what is inside it.

Personal belongings create another limitation. If the seller has boxes, furniture, storage, rugs or other belongings covering important components, I do not move everything around — the Standards of Practice do not require an inspector to move personal items or dismantle components to gain access.

So buyers can help themselves by asking the seller to make important areas accessible beforehand. Access panels should be reachable. Electrical panels should not be blocked. Crawl-space entrances should not be buried behind belongings. And if something important is covered up, understand that it may limit what the inspector can observe.

What if the utilities are turned off?

This makes a significant difference. You cannot properly evaluate plumbing without water, or electrical systems without electricity, and the Standards of Practice recognize that inspectors are not required to operate systems that are shut down.

I once inspected a house where the utilities were off. I told the client they needed to be restored. Once they were turned back on, we discovered that much of the home’s water-supply piping had burst, because the house had not been properly winterized. That changed the findings dramatically.

So if you are buying a vacant property, ask about the utilities before the inspection. It could make a real difference.

Septic systems and sewer lines

A private septic system is largely underground. I cannot visually inspect every component of one during a standard home inspection, and the Standards of Practice specifically exclude septic systems and other underground systems from the standard scope.

If you are buying a property with a private septic system, ask questions. When was the tank last pumped? Are there records? Has the system been evaluated recently? Depending on the answers, additional evaluation may be appropriate. The same principle applies to older homes with buried sewer lines, where a sewer scope can sometimes tell you what a visual inspection cannot.

The point is not that every house needs every specialized inspection. The point is that your home inspection may identify a reason to investigate something further.

Environmental hazards are a separate issue

A standard home inspection is not an environmental inspection. InterNACHI’s residential Standards of Practice put hazards such as lead paint and asbestos, and airborne hazards such as radon, outside the standard scope. Kentucky requires an inspection report to say so directly, and to list what is excluded.

That does not mean those things are unimportant. It means that if you have a particular concern, you should ask about additional testing by an appropriately qualified professional. This is one reason I tell buyers that a home inspection is a starting point, not an ending point.

New does not mean perfect

This is the misconception I feel most strongly about. I have inspected many new-construction homes that had significant concerns.

A new house may involve a general contractor coordinating dozens of subcontractors and trades, each responsible for one specific part of the home. Everyone is focused on getting their piece of the job done correctly — but the house has to work as one complete system, and problems often occur where one trade’s work intersects with another’s.

I have seen things that simply were not finished, items that needed correction, and plenty of punch-list items in brand-new homes. An independent inspection is another set of eyes — someone looking at the home as a whole rather than at one trade or one component.

Depending on the stage of construction, other inspections may be appropriate too, such as a pre-drywall inspection, which allows certain components to be evaluated before insulation and drywall cover them. InterNACHI maintains a separate standard for that.

The house may be new. That does not mean it has been finished perfectly.

“Would you buy this house?”

This is probably the second-most common question I am asked. It is a great question, and it is also one I do not think I should answer for you.

You are not me. Your family’s needs are not my family’s needs. Your budget is not my budget. Your tolerance for repairs is not my tolerance for repairs. Something that would make you walk away might be something another buyer would happily repair.

My responsibility is to give you professional observations and help you understand what I have found. Your responsibility is to decide what you are willing to accept. That is why I try hard not to let my personal opinion cloud the facts of the inspection.

The seller does not have to fix everything

Another common misconception is that once you receive an inspection report, the seller is required to fix everything in it. That is not how it works.

The report gives you information. What happens next is part of the negotiation between buyer and seller. The seller may agree to make repairs. They may agree to a price reduction. They may agree to nothing at all. Then you decide whether the purchase still makes sense.

So try not to view the report as a giant fix-it list for the seller. View it as information that helps you decide what matters.

How should you choose a home inspector?

Not all home inspectors are the same, and experience matters. I have been doing this for nine years, and one of the greatest benefits of that is having hundreds of houses to compare. You begin to recognize patterns. Something that looks terrifying to an inexperienced inspector may be a relatively straightforward repair, and something that looks insignificant at first glance may deserve much more attention.

I would encourage buyers to look at:

• Experience. How long has the inspector been doing this?
• Reviews. Look for comments about communication, professionalism, thoroughness, and whether the inspector explained things clearly.
• Credentials and licensing. Verify that the inspector meets the requirements that apply where you are buying.
• Reporting. Ask to see what the report actually looks like.

Ask for a sample report. In nine years, I do not think a prospective client has ever asked me for one before hiring me.

I think it is a great question. Not every inspection report is created equally. Some are essentially checklists, and a checklist might technically contain information without helping you understand the house.

So ask to see one. Look at the photographs. Look at how defects are explained. Look at whether the report gives you enough to understand the concern and work out what you should investigate next. Ours is published on this site — a real InFocus inspection report, with the client and property details removed.

You are not just hiring someone to inspect the house. You are hiring someone to communicate what they found, and the report is a major part of that communication.

What should you do before the inspection?

One thing that really impresses me is when a buyer comes prepared with a list of concerns.

Do you have children, and are you particularly concerned about their safety? Do you have pets? Did you notice something strange during the showing? Write it down and tell your inspector.

The more I understand about what matters to you, the better I understand the perspective you are bringing to the inspection. It does not mean I am going to ignore the rest of the house. But knowing your concerns helps me pay particular attention to them and explain what I find in a way that makes sense to you.

Take moisture problems seriously

If I could point to one category of problems that buyers should pay particular attention to, moisture would be near the top of my list — especially in crawl spaces.

I have seen a strong relationship between exterior water management and moisture problems underneath houses. Things like:

• missing or inadequate gutters
• downspouts that do not move water away from the house
• ground sloping toward the foundation
• water collecting near the foundation
• trees and leaves clogging gutters

In our climate we also have seasonal humidity and freeze-and-thaw cycles on top of all that. It does not mean every house with a clogged gutter has a major problem. But when I see poor water management around a house, I pay attention. And if there is evidence of moisture in the crawl space, I want the buyer to understand that it may require more investigation and potentially significant repairs.

Crawl-space repairs can also be harder to arrange than you would expect, because finding contractors willing to perform certain kinds of work in a confined space is not always easy.

Treat the inspection as the beginning of your due diligence

This might be my biggest piece of advice. The inspection is the beginning of your due diligence, not the end of it. It may lead you to:

• call a termite inspector
• have a sewer scope performed
• contact an electrician
• have a structural concern evaluated
• get a plumber’s opinion
• obtain repair estimates
• investigate the septic system
• research permits or records
• negotiate with the seller

The sooner you have that information, the more time you have to make an informed decision. Do not wait until the day before closing to discover that a repair is going to cost substantially more than you expected.

The home inspection puts you in the driver’s seat

Ultimately, this is what I want buyers to understand. A home inspection is not about telling you whether you should buy a house. It is about giving you information.

It is not a guarantee. It is not a crystal ball. It is not a pass-or-fail test. And it is not a substitute for every specialized inspection or professional evaluation that might be appropriate for a particular property. It is a snapshot of the condition of the house at the time of the inspection, within the scope and limitations of the inspection.

What it does give you is a chance to see things you probably would not see during a typical showing. Sometimes you will find a problem serious enough to walk away from. Sometimes you will find problems you can negotiate. Sometimes you will find things that simply become part of your future maintenance plan. And sometimes you will discover the house is in better shape than you feared. That is the value.

You do not hire a home inspector to tell you whether to buy the house. You hire one so that you can make that decision with your eyes open.

And if you are buying your first home, that is probably one of the most valuable things you can have.