Post Settlement Inspections

Due to the competitive market, we are being hired to perform more post-settlement inspections. Due to multiple offers, escalation clauses, and cash buyers, more home buyers are waving inspections at an unprecidented rate to be more competitive and get into a home. After losing multiple offers, buyers are becoming more desperate and putting off the inspection until after closing.

For home buyers, it is understandable that they feel pressure to get into a home due to the low inventory and increasing interest rates. However, once they go to closing any and all issues with the home become their concern. These can include. water damage, mold, asbestos, buried oil tanks, aluminum wiring, failing roofs, unsafe decks, failing sewer and waste systems, termite damage, substandard workmanship, non-permitted workmanship, deferred maintenance, and more.

Once you know your settlement day, you may choose to have a home inspector and other inspection services survey your home. This can help you determine what you need to budget for, how to take care of the home and help you determine if you have any pressing concerns in need of immediate repairs or improvements.

We are also seeing more clients working from home only to discover they are having indoor air quality issues, including molds, VOCs, and more. We help all our clients find remedies and solutions for what may arise if they have the resources and time to correct any issues. Lately, we have had several clients call us for indoor air quality testing as they have had to move out of their homes while the cause of the poor air quality is corrected.

Structural and safety-related issues are another concern that the home buyers need to go in with their eyes wide open, and as the saying goes, “Caveat emptor,” let the buyer beware.

One state has stepped up to the plate proposing a bill to prevent this.

“Senate Bill 197 and House Bill 245—known as An Act Protecting Consumer Rights in Purchasing Safe and Habitable Homes—would make home inspections a right in Massachusetts. Supporters of the legislation say prospective home buyers would no longer feel the pressure to waive inspection to sweeten an offer.” By Jason Law, Boston 25 News

Hopefully, more states, including Maryland, will take a page from this bill and pass similar legislation.

Knowing what you as a buyer are facing in these challenging times, align yourself with a team, starting with a good real estate agent looking out for you, a home inspector, a pest inspector, a chimney, and sewer/septic inspectors when needed. If you have a good relationship with any, you can call them when looking at prospective homes for an opinion. For most people making an uninformed purchase can be costly, so at least take precautions and be represented by professionals with your best interest at heart.

If you are reading this and have any questions about a home you’re looking at as a home buyer, please feel free to contact us. We try to be a resource for buyers, sellers, homeowners, and the real estate industry. Be safe and happy house hunting.

Showalter Property Consultants can help with your new home prepurchse inspection in Maryland.

Call today! 410-570-6430