Home Inspection Myths: What Every Homeowner Should Know

Jamie: 00:00:01

Welcome to Thoughts from the Crawl Space, a podcast where our goal as home inspection experts is to support and serve our community.

Whether you're a homeowner, home buyer, real estate agent, or investor, we believe everyone deserves solutions to their homeownership challenges and inspiration along the way. Your path to success starts here. Misinformation.

One of the biggest things we hear today is from both sides of political aisle, is, oh, that's misinformation. Well, let's relate that today to home inspections. There's a lot of myths out there and there's more importantly, facts.

So we're going to talk today about what are some of the myths about home inspections. So, first of all, welcome to the episode today. I think this can be really informative, engaging.

It's going to help to dispel some of the rumors you hear out there or maybe some of the concepts you have in your mind about what a home inspection is or what it isn't. While we've seen pretty much all of it in 20 years, it's something we battle on a regular basis to clarify these things.

What's the proper expectation for a home inspection, and so forth. So let's jump right in. Number one, a home inspection is the same as an appraisal. Now, this gets mixed up quite a bit.

And one reason it gets mixed up is because they're sometimes called the same thing. And we see this a lot with sellers will show up to the house and they're like, well, you already were here yesterday to do your job.

Why are you here today? And no, ma'am, no, sir, we're here to do the inspection. That was probably an appraisal. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was an appraisal. Okay.

One key difference between an appraisal and a home inspection is simply the time spent on site.

This might not be something you think about in terms of distinguishing between the two, but an appraiser typically is going to be on site more like 15 to 20 minutes, whereas an inspector is going to be on site more like three hours. An appraiser is there to assess the property for its true value.

An inspector is there to look at the systems in the home for defects such as electrical, plumbing, H vac, attic roof, foundation, et cetera. An inspector is going to be there to find and document the issues on site, give them to you in a report that should be coming that day or later.

And an appraiser is going to go back to their office. They're going to compare your property with others in the area to try to find Similarities to give your home a true market value.

And that's where you find the main difference between a home inspection and appraisal. They're going to typically cost similarly.

I know appraisers are used usually in a rotational basis by a real estate agent, whereas an inspector is going to be more based just on referral or, you know, who can sell their services the best to the. To the buyer as they call and try to book the inspection. So number myth number two, new homes don't need an inspection. This one is a really good one.

We hear that a lot. In fact, the fact that we don't do a lot of homes that are new tells me that that myth is alive and well.

And so you get a new house built, you don't have control over the whole process. Let's say you have a builder and he's reputable. He has shown you there's great reviews online, he's showing you great product.

He's given you the timeline for everything. You've picked out all your finishes, your paint, et cetera, et cetera. And then the process starts.

But what you don't know is during that process, he is subbing out a lot of his work. Most of the time, he's subbing that out to the different contractors. H vac, electrical, plumbing.

Those individual companies are always battling what every business battles these days, and that is quality help. And so he could have a company he's worked with for years in the H Vac industry, and they always do good work.

But they're having problems keeping people. They got new people. They aren't trained as well, maybe as they used to be. And so you don't know the quality of work you're getting.

You don't know if key steps have been overlooked. And you say, well, the county inspector make sure things are up to code, so it should be good. Not true.

County inspectors have their little punch list now and then, but a lot of them have different things that they emphasize, different things they care about.

And I can just speak from personal experience, when they come out to give the final certificate of occupancy, it's really not a thorough inspection of anything. It's just a few things they're checking off so they can go on to the next house. Typically, these departments are way overloaded.

They don't have the manpower to keep up. And so it's not going to be a thorough inspection by any means.

And so one, you got subcontractors that may not be doing the job well, and things may get overlooked because of lack of communication. Like any industry, the builder industry is subject to. It's only as good as the workers. Right.

And so anything that they struggle with can affect the quality of the home. So when we go do a home inspection on a new home, there's. I could probably name five or six things we find typically on new homes.

I won't get into on this episode, but listen to it for future episodes. Just a couple of them that we typically run in into on a new house. And one of them is a dirty furnace. And you say dirty, it just got put in.

Well, it got put in before they finished the drywall sanding. And now there's drywall dust floating through the air. They want to dry the mud in the drywall finishing process. And so the H Vac is on.

It's circulating that through the whole system. And in the newer high efficiency furnaces, you have a dual heat exchanger and that fine drywall dust.

If anybody's ever done drywall sanding, you know how fine that can be and where it goes, it gets drawn up into the secondary heat exchanger and it can clog that, keep it from doing its job optimally. And it can definitely shorten the life of a furnace. So we frequently will open up a furnace and it will be dirty with drywall dust.

So you say, well, that's not such a big deal. Well, it's fixable. No doubt about that. But it's something you want to catch and know is perfectly clean. Not to mention what might be in the ductwork.

You don't want to move in, turn on your H Vac and you have now drywall dust that just consistently blows out of the ductwork for the next however many years. So that's one example of many that we could give you on things that get overlooked.

One thing is just in general is, you know, like plumbers and so forth. And I'm not picking on plumbers. I'm just using them as an example.

But they put things together, but they may not operate the fixtures under the same load that a home inspector will. Okay, they might put a shower in a sink and they'll run the water, make sure it gets hot and cold. Yep, we're good.

Well, do they fill up the drain pan in the tile shower? Do they put water in the tub and let it sit? Do they run multiple fixtures at once and so forth? Many flippers. We see it.

Granted, this isn't new construction, but a flipped house has a lot of new features. They will put in showers or fixtures and the valves don't go in. Right. And so then you don't get as hot a water as you would like.

And so there is just a multitude of issues with new homes that we find in general. You don't find as many major defects. Certainly you shouldn't.

And the finishes are beautiful and everything, but as far as skipping it because it's a new house, I would never do that. We've seen new houses with no insulation in the attic. We've seen multiple damages to roofs.

We've seen shingles improperly installed which would void any warranty. And so there's just a lot of litany of things that would pop up on new homes that you want to avoid.

So myth number three, and this is kind of a silly one, but we do hear it, if the house looks good, the inspection will be fine.

So you're a first time home buyer out there, and you bring your dad or your uncle or your cousin or a friend, and they look around and say, this house looks pretty good. I think you're fine. Well, first glance really doesn't do much. In fact, it may even give you a false sense of security.

Many new houses, many flippers, many renovators are very adept at covering up significant problems in the home. It's probably one of our biggest frustrations. And so you definitely need a home inspector to look into it rather than just at surface level.

Myth number four, home inspections are just a formality. Well, two things there. Number one, it's not a formality at all in the sense it's not required. A home inspection in most cases is not required.

There are some government issued loans that will require at least certain aspects of a home inspection. Maybe like a termite inspection or water testing or something like that. But very few mortgage lenders or banks will require a home inspection.

And so in that case, it's definitely not a formality in that sense. It's not just another check on the box for the buying process.

It's definitely something you need to search out, find a quality company and research them, find out what they do, find out what they offer, find out how good they are, and find out how they back up their work. A home inspector will catch every single issue. Well, I wish this was true. And we'd certainly do our best to catch every issue that really matters.

The fact is, there are many items that only will be discovered by living in the home. Certain noises, maybe certain switches not operating in the way three were. Four way switches are designed to operate.

When we were there for two or three hours, it's very difficult to do an exhaustive inspection. I like to tell people we are thorough, we are comprehensive, but we're not exhaustive.

First of all, we're not electricians, we're not plumbers, we're not roofers. We're not foundation experts. We are generalists. When you go to the doctor because you have something wrong, he is a generalist.

He will identify maybe, oh, you have a pain in your shoulder, I'm going to send you to an orthopedic surgeon or doctor that's going to specialize in shoulders. That's exactly what we do.

We are generalists, we are competent, we are very technically knowledgeable, but we are not going to be exhaustive in every aspect of that home as far as the electrical and so forth. We can't see inside walls, we can't see under carpet, we can't see in insulation, in the attic to determine what's going on up there.

So without spending 20 minutes on what we can't do, there's a lot that we can can do.

And we find on a regular basis major significant things that would affect the quality of your home, the cost of repairs, your comfort of living there, and so forth. So I would highly recommend going in with the right expectation level.

The good real estate agents that we work with, if we aren't there to do it initially, they do a great job of preparing clients for an inspection, saying, look, this house is not going to be perfect. The inspector is not there to nitpick. He's not there to find every little stupid thing that you don't think is perfect.

But he is there to find the major problems with the major systems of the home. Your outlets, are they wired right? Are they ungrounded? Are there unsafe hookups? Your plumbing, is it sloped properly?

Does the line decrease in size as it goes toward the exit? Do you have proper P traps to keep sewer gases from coming back into the house? And on and on.

And so there are tons of things that we will find that will give you peace of mind or help you to get them fixed in negotiations. But as far as catching every single issue, we're going to catch a lot, and we're going to catch the ones that matter every single issue.

You'll probably find something after you move in that that may surprise you a little bit, but it shouldn't be anything significant. Myth number six, if an inspection finds issues, the deal will fall through. Again, not true. This goes back to expectations.

What is your expectation of that inspection? When you typically go through a house, the first Time. You're looking at how nice the walls are. You're looking at the big living room.

You're looking at the fancy kitchen. You're looking at the pool out back.

You're really not looking at the nuts and bolts of that house and why it works and what really matters as far as costs and safety and comfort. That's where we come in. We're going to find things that you didn't see. You need to be prepared for that.

And so it doesn't need to make a deal fall through. Almost everything's fixable. The only case that's not fixable, maybe you need to start over.

And I guess in a sense that's fixable and that may cause a deal to not go through. We say that we don't kill deals. The house commits suicide. And that's kind of a funny way of looking at it.

But home inspectors, the good ones, are not there to kill a deal. We're there to do a job. We're there to try to give you the peace of mind for you to enjoy that house.

We have no stake in that house closing or not closing. We're independent or a third party. We don't work for anybody but you.

And so if we find issues, that's where you work with your professional, your real estate agent to help negotiate your way through that and move on and enjoy the house that you have found that you like. Myth number seven, Home inspections are just too expensive. Well, this is interesting.

If you hire anybody to come out to your house anymore for just a repair or a service, for example, an H VAC contractor, he's probably going to charge you $250 to $300 just to come out there and clean something and change a filter and do a little maintenance. He might be there 20 to 30 minutes. Home inspectors are there for three hours. We're crawling through every part of that house that's accessible.

We are literally putting our, our health and our safety on the line in many cases, going through attics, crawling on the roof, poking our way through crawl spaces, and so forth. And yet probably the average just home inspection fee is going to be in the 400 to $500 range. Might seem like a lot, and I get it.

When you're buying a house, there's a lot of expenses, but for the value you're getting, there's really nothing like it. For the peace of mind you're getting, there's really nothing like it.

For the value that most good home inspectors bring, 4 to $500 for an inspection and you know, if you do the add on services, termite radon, sewer line scan, mold testing and so forth, you know you can easily get $1,500. That's still a bargain. You're getting much more for that in value out of it. Just in education, just in peace of mind.

It's not uncommon for $1,500 to $2,000 inspections to reveal problems that would cost 10 times that much if you overlooked it and just bought the house. So it's not an expense. A home inspection is an investment. That sounds glib, but it's the truth. You're investing, you're transferring the risk.

Our professionalism is taking that risk and giving you the information that you need. So don't think of it as an expense. Look at what can I invest here to make sure my family's safe and I'm getting a good value on this house.

I know one thing we're seeing in recent years is that buyers are having to, quote, overpay for houses because there are bidding wars on houses and so forth. They're paying more and so they want to cut costs somewhere.

And so they may start by skipping the home inspection, which is a really bad idea and can lead to even bigger problems down the road. Home inspectors are just there to find problems. Wrong again. Home inspectors are there to do an honest assessment of the property.

You know what, you might find this hard to believe. A home inspector doesn't want to be there any longer than he has to be.

The more problems he finds, the longer he's there, the longer it takes to write the report, the more things that he has to write up and recommend and so forth. We're not there to, quote, just find problems.

Some real estate agents even believe that home inspectors will basically find problems to justify their fee. Again, that's a myth.

I'm not saying there aren't some out there that will do that or that have done that in the past, but certainly not how we do it, certainly not how the top companies do it. It's just simply not true. We're there to provide an honest third party assessment. There have been houses I go through, my guys have gone through.

There's simply nothing there significant to report. There just isn't. We may still give you maintenance tips. I mean, we're going to provide that on any inspection.

But as far as finding a problem, there's some houses that have been lived in for years by folks that just flat out take care of everything that would pop up. And so that's just, it's A myth and not true. Number nine. Myth number nine. You can skip the inspection if you trust the seller or the agent.

Well, that's your choice. That might not be a myth as much as it's just a choice. If you're buying a house from a friend, do you still want to be friends afterward?

If you're buying it because an agent tells you this is a great house, you don't need to get this instruction inspected. It was just inspected three years ago when I sold it previously. Are you going to trust them?

Are they going to back that up when you move in and find out that your furnace has a significant defect causing it to put carbon monoxide in the air? Or when your roof starts leaking three months later? Now, those things can happen anyhow, even if you get an inspection.

But the chances of you getting these things caught ahead of time are much greater if you use a home inspector and don't just take the agent's word for it. An agent can actually get in trouble.

If they're going to recommend you skip an inspection for the sake of closing the deal or possibly getting your offer accepted, that's not a good plan for them. It's not a good plan for you. Myth number 10, a home inspection is only useful for buyers. Again, not true.

We had an episode recently on pre listing inspections for folks getting ready to sell their home.

And one of the points we emphasized in that episode is that getting your home inspected prior to the home getting listed is a great way to mitigate problems, take the emotion out of the negotiations, help you as the owner to get things fixed before you put it on the market and thereby be able to maximize value on the inspection and not have to deal with emotional and quick and hurried repairs. On surprises that might be caught. Myth number 11, home inspections are only for older homes.

We addressed this a little earlier when we talked about new construction and some of the issues we see there. But certainly older homes have more problems. There's no doubt about that. You get in.

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Granted, a home that's built in the 70s is considered pretty old at this point. I mean, it's, you know, 50ish years old. And those can have definitely have some problems.

But even homes built 20, 30 years ago, there's always something that seems to be a trend. You could have window issues. You know, windows don't last forever, especially wooden ones that are metal clad and have water damage and so forth.

So just on and on and on. It's just a great idea. Just get your home inspected. I can't emphasize it enough.

Myth number 12, this kind of touches on an inspector will find anything. But myth number 12, a home inspection will tell you everything about a home's condition. Again, not quite true.

We're going to give you a really good picture of what's going on there. But again, some things can only be learned by living there.

When you got married, you probably thought you knew everything about your spouse and about marriage and love, and then you moved in together and you discovered you didn't know everything about them. They're a little messier than you thought. Maybe they squeezed a toothpaste from the middle of the tube instead of the end.

Maybe they wouldn't want to go out to eat all the time instead of eat at home. On and on and on. And you've had to adjust and adapt. And same thing with the home. We're going to tell you a lot about that thing.

We're going to give you the quote, the pre marriage counseling of home inspections. Before you end, we're going to tell you what's up in that home.

We're not going to tell you to buy it or not, but we're going to give you a good assessment. But when you move in, there's just always something you're going to find that surprises you. Myth 13 Couple more here.

You don't need an inspection if you're buying a fixer upper, well, that's your choice. But a fixer upper means there was problems before. And did the fixer upper person fix them in the right way?

The absolute, without a doubt, the biggest problems we ever find are on houses that are flipped. It's not on that one that was maintained by the gentleman that lived there for 50 years.

It's not on the investor that came in and gutted the entire house and redid everything the right way. It's on these flip houses that somebody is experimenting on or thinking they can make a quick buck based on a TV show they watched.

And so if you're buying a fixer upper, a flip house, you really need to get that thing inspected.

And it's just going to give you a lot of information and maybe some that you don't want to hear, but something you need to know before you go in and buy that house. So in conclusion, there's a lot of myths out there. There's a lot of folks out there trying to steer you away from getting a home inspection.

And this is whether you're buying the house or whether you own the house now. Do you know what's in your attic? Do you know what condition your roof really is in? Do you know what's living in your crawl space?

What's the mold condition down there? If you're listening to this and you own your own home, call us to get it inspected.

It's an investment that will save you over and over again in peace of mind financially, any future considerations, whether you're giving your house to your children, whether you're selling it, whatever you're doing. But if there's any more things you've heard out there about myths, give us a call. Let us dispel that myth as well.

But these 13 myths I've talked about today should give you a really good foundation as a reason that no matter what you're going to call, you're going to get your home inspected, you're going to get peace of mind, you're going to do it the right way. You're not going to worry about an expense because this is an investment that's going to save you now and in the future.

Thanks for listening, everybody. We hope you will share this episode with your friends, comment on it and give us a five star review. We'd really appreciate it.

Have a great day, everyone. Thank you for listening this week.

You can catch up on the latest episode of the Thoughts from the Crawl Space podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. For more information about Gold Key inspection services, go to goldkeyinspect dot.