Living Beaverton - Your guide to everything Beaverton

Buying your first home in Beaverton, Oregon, can be a scary thing. You are spending a lot of money, probably more money than you have ever spent in your life. College costs a lot of money, but nothing compared to owning a home. But unlike college, you actually get to use the money you spend the day after you are handed the keys. (How many of us actually have careers in what we majored in during college?)

There are a lot of steps in the home buying process, but the two most important, as far as I’m concerned, are the appraisal and the home inspection. (OK, and hiring the best Beaverton, Oregon, Realtor). But, today we are going to talk about the home inspection and what it really means to you, the buyer.

The home inspection can cost anywhere from $250-$500 depending on the size of the home, if it has a crawl space or not, and if you are including a pest and dry rot inspection. (Some inspections include those for free.)

I’ve had many 1st time home buyers tell me they can’t afford to spend the money on a home inspection and that the house looks good to them. Well, I can tell you that the money you spend on an inspection can be the least expensive insurance policy you will ever buy. Imagine if you had bought a home without an inspection and you are moving in and a week later you see mold in the closet? The previous owner may not have known, but there was standing water under that house that the inspection would have found, had you had one. Total cost of the repair? Up to $10,000 or maybe even more. But had you spent that $400 you would have know about it before hand. (Even if it hasn’t rained in weeks an inspector can see signs of water or other damage that pests or water have left behind.)

Now, the inspection shouldn’t be something that is there to scare you out of buying a home and there are many inspectors that I like to call “ALARMISTS!” These inspectors find a paint chip in the hallway and they yell, “GET OUT, THE HOUSE IS ABOUT TO FALL DOWN” This type of inspector can scare you, but that really isn’t why the inspector is there. They are there to warn you about potential problems or to find problems that already exist that no one knows about.

I have a group of inspectors that are very thorough, and like me, love to work with first time home buyers. They understand that the clients have not been through this process before and aren’t there to panic anyone, but just to show them what they have found. Some agents don’t like to have their buyers at the inspection, but I require at least one person who is on the loan to be there during the inspection.

The reason I do this is though pictures and description do tell of the problem, they can actually make things look a lot worse than they really are. I like to have the inspector, when he or she finds something, to bring the buyer over, point it out and explain why it could look this way and what it the possible fix could be for the seller, if that is something that is needed.

If I were to look at a 4x6 picture of dry rot in a bathroom in an inspection report, I might yell, “Run, the house is falling down!” But the inspector may point out, and one did, that this was right below where they stored their tooth brushes on the wall and the water that was dripping down from them after they had rinsed them was causing some dry rot. The pictures made it look like a $10,000 bathroom remodel, the actual bill was $14 and the removal of the toothbrush holder.

This is where a good inspector comes in and doesn’t alarm anyone, just points out the facts and shows you where your potential problem could be and what you could do to fix it, or if it is something major, something you could have the seller fix before close. Most of the time, the sellers are prepared for a repair addendum and most of the time, it isn’t a big deal.

So, don’t let the thought of getting and inspection, scare you, but at the same time, do make sure you get one! If you are in the market for a new home in the Beaverton, Oregon, area give me a call, I would love to help you home!