Should I Buy a House Without a Home Inspection?
It’s a question many a homebuyer has asked themselves…especially when markets get very competitive! Everyone understandably tries to find different ways to make their offer more attractive, and a waived home inspection certainly can be an attractive option for a seller (makes sense!).
If You Waive Your Home Inspection
While we do NOT recommend waiving your home inspection (no surprises there, right?), it’s important for you to know that–if you do have to waive the inspection–you still do not have to walk blindly into a bidding war. Especially over a home where you may later discover more costly issues than you bargained for!
If you do have to waive the inspection, you still do not have to walk blindly into a bidding war.
The best option–after a professional home inspection–is to schedule what we (at HomeKey Inspections) call a Showing Walk & Talk Consultation.
Here, below, are FOUR reasons why a Showing Walk & Talk Consultation is essential when a home inspection is not an option.
1) It Can Help You Avoid Making a Costly Mistake
The reason why a waived inspection is attractive to a seller is that this can mean saved money for them (and lost money for you, in home repairs or replacement of systems). And that’s obviously why the full home inspection is the ideal scenario.
But if you have a professional, trained eye accompanying you during a showing of a home, this can help draw your attention to the sorts of red flags you’d want to know about before moving forward with the property.
2) It Can Arm You with Knowledge to Make an Incredibly Competitive Offer
In many cases, a Walk & Talk Consultation may not uncover any alarming hidden issues, but may instead help you to feel great confidence to make an incredibly competitive offer on a home you’re interested in!
For example: The home looks like it’s suffered from some deferred maintenance (missing paint, some wood rot in a few places along the trim, some landscaping needing to be done), but your consultation reveals that many of the major systems are newer AND appear to be properly installed, including the roof! This sort of information may help you to more confidently make a competitive offer.
3) No One Wants to Be Competitive on a House That Needs Lots of Repairs
A competitive offer is often what’s needed in these sorts of crazy markets to secure the home you want. But who wants to be competitive on a home where they’ll end up spending even more money soon after moving in??
The Showing Walk & Talk Consultation is designed for this very purpose, to help you as the buyer to avoid wasting time, money and energy. A little bit of knowledge can go a long way and help eliminate those possibilities that may present more risk / likely costs than you’re comfortable with.
4) A Consultation is the Only Option to Bring Along a Trained Professional
As mentioned earlier, sometimes it seems that a waived home inspection almost becomes a criterion for consideration of your offer in certain markets.
Some listings specifically state “no home inspections”. In these situations, you can still hire one of our home inspectors to accompany you on a showing for a “consultation”!
A Consultation is NOT a Home Inspection
And yes, the difference is more than just semantics. A consultation is NOT a home inspection; they are very different. Because the Walk & Talk Consultation is a “consultation” and not an “inspection”, it does not fall under a set of Standards of Practice (which IS required for any home inspection in Virginia, Maryland, and many other states).
This makes the consultation far less thorough than (and not a substitute for) a home inspection. However, this difference is also what makes it your best (and only) option to have a professional equip you with information you need to make the best decision for you.
– The Team @ HomeKey Inspections
