What are property inspections?

Property inspection refers to any and all inspections that the buyer may want to do. This includes a home inspection, pest inspection, HVAC inspection, plumbing inspection, foundation inspection, research on natural hazards, sex offender databases, nearby landfills, military bases, airports, schools, traffic patterns, and anything else that may affect the property whether on the property itself or even nearby where it may impact the property in some way. It’s important to understand that this contingency includes all matters that may affect the property. With this contingency, the buyer has a right to investigate all of them, some of them, or none of them, if they choose. It’s important that any buyer inspect and investigate anything that they feel could be an issue.

Most commonly, a buyer will start with a general home inspection. Depending on what the general home inspector finds, they may ask some specialists to come in to further investigate a possible issue. 

That being said, many localities have their own customary standards. For example, if there is an area known to have a lot of moisture, it may be customary to always do a mold inspection. In an area known for certain types of soil, it may be customary to always do a geological certification, and so on.

Not only do localities have their own norms, the choice of inspections will also depend on the subject property itself. For example, if there is a large tree in the front yard, and it’s known that the sewer line might be in or near it’s root path, a buyer may opt to get a sewer line scope to investigate if there is any root penetration or blockage. Be sure to ask the appropriate professionals for advice on which inspections you should do when buying a home.

In a real estate transaction, when the buyer has a Property Inspection Contingency, they are allowed a certain amount of time in which they may conduct any sort of non-invasive investigations/inspections of the property. The seller is usually required to make the property available to the buyer during this time frame, but to be sure, make sure you read your contract.