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Common Home Inspection Defects
Mon 06 Apr 2009 - 15:18
Common Home Inspection Defects
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Asri_Joda]Asri Joda
Most people these days are convinced that they must have a home inspection before they purchase a house. Many of them have heard the horror stories about people who bought homes without a home inspection, and then learned the house had tons of problems when they got the keys.
Thanks to cable stations like TLC and HGTV, Americans are learning more and more about buying and remodeling homes; and in most cases, the programs responsibly promote having an inspection before purchasing a house.
So with that settled: what kinds of defects and problems do home inspectors find? The answer is, you name it, and they find it; yet there are some common defects that can make you reconsider buying a home.
Water damage is one of the big things that home inspectors are on the look out for. Whether it's a damp smell in the basement or water stains on the ceiling, evidence of water damage can point to mildew and plumbing problems.
Another big deal for home inspectors is the foundation of a house. This is something that you would never know how to evaluate or check by yourself, but if your house is built on a bad foundation, it can lead to real problems. A house with a cracked foundation is a big deal - as a home buyer, you would want to know about a problem of this magnitude before buying a house.
The roof is also a critical area. You probably wouldn't know a good roof from a bad one, but a home inspector can determine how old the roof is and offer some general guidelines of when it should be replaced. Most people don't like to spend thousands of dollars on a roof that can't be seen. Spending thousands on landscaping or a new pool is easy to do, but forking over thousands for a new roof is not an exciting prospect. Because of this, many people own a home and sell it without ever having done any work to the roof. If you are not careful, you may buy a house and then have to immediately invest in a new roof.
While it's important to stress that home inspectors are neither electricians nor experts on county code violations, they should be able to spot defective or poorly installed electrical wiring in the house. When you're talking electricity, you're talking about safety for you and your family.
Discovering some of the problems mentioned above will be enough to scare away some home buyers, but problems like these can also be powerful negotiating tools if you really want the house. Your real estate agent should be able to use this kind of information to do one of two things: either request that the owner lower the price, or ask the owner to fix the problem before you purchase the house.
Home buyers must ask themselves how badly they want a particular house and what kinds of compromises they are willing to make. The bottom line is that all houses have problems; it's just a matter of your comfort level when you make the decision to buy.
Asri Joda is a marketing agent for accredited online school in California USA. Get your [http://www.homeinspectioncourse.com]home inspection license from nationally accredited [http://www.realestatelicense.com]real estate online school.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Asri_Joda http://EzineArticles.com/?Common-Home-Inspection-Defects&id=2166884
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