Do I Need A Home Inspection To Buy A House?
Do I Need A Home Inspection To Buy A House?
Yes, most definitely! You will never hear us say…”Don’t bother with a home inspection“, and if you ever do…we have gone crazy, so run, save yourselves!
Part of the responsibility of purchasing a home whether it is your first or your last is to do your due diligence and find out every thing you can about the property before you decide to buy it. One part of this due diligence is a home inspection.
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A professional home inspector will help you ” kick the tires” and poke around the house to make sure all is as it should be once you take the rose colored glasses off. This will be your opportunity to check behind the curtains, under the hood, and all the other clichés’ and really determine how sound the home is. Your inspector should be checking all the electrical outlets, the plumbing (that’s a biggy), heating and air conditioning, peering into the attic to make sure the roof is sound., exploring the basement (unless there IS no basement, then that would be dumb) to check out water leaks. Your inspector should check out the sprinkling system, the faucets, the oven, the dishwasher, and any other appliance that is negotiated in the purchase contract.
What this will accomplish is this….
- You will find out the problems that exist with the home and then, with your agent , negotiate any repairs that are needed.
- You will also find out any potential problems so that you can be prepared for the future.
Who should you get to do an inspection? There are lots of companies with professional inspectors to help you with this. These professionals will do an inspection and give you a full written report of what they find. A professional home inspection will run you from $200-300 for an average size home, a little less for a town home or condo.
You can also opt for a trusted friend or relative that is a contractor or in the building industry. The good thing is it will probably cost you less. The bad thing is in our experience they miss the important stuff (like whether the furnace is fit or needs to be green stickered) and concentrate on things that are usually beyond scope of what a home inspection is supposed to be (like wanting all the plugs moved in the finished basement because they were too far apart….true story!)
Anyway, if you want your home purchase to go smoothly and have no regrets when you move in…..Get A Home Inspection! For more information on this, or if you need a recommendation on who to call, drop us an email at loves@SALTLAKEHOMEFINDERS.com, we have several inspectors we have worked with and are happy to recommend.
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Read MoreHow To Lose Your Home in Less Than 10 Minutes
Most people think that having condo insurance is like having renter’s insurance, you need to cover your personal possessions and the rest is covered by the master policy of the HOA, right? That’s what you pay your HOA dues every month for…well, sorta right. Here in Utah we have Utah Condo Law that specifies ,( well , they didn’t really put it like this, being an official law and all, but this is what it means), if you took your unit and turned it upside down, everything that falls out is what you as a homeowner would be responsible for insuring. Pretty straight forward, right? Well, the fly in the ointment is that community CC&Rs (the bible by which Condo and PUD communities live by) can override this very same provision in the law!
First, a bit of background. This is the story (true by the way) of an older lady who lives with her daughter and grandson in a beautiful condo community in Salt Lake. She , we’ll call her Freida (name is changed to protect the innocent) lives in a stack unit community (apartment type condo where there are 3 levels). Frieda and her family and 2 cats live on the first level.
One day in December (well, more like a week I guess) we had sub freezing temperatures, which unbeknownst to anyone, froze a fire sprinkler pipe up in the attic of the top unit (which is technically common space since it is directly under the roof of the building). So….
When the weather warmed up, the frozen sprinkler pipe cracked, blowing out the sprinkler head and priming the fire system, which being the dutiful and reliable fire system that it was, began pumping hundreds of gallons of water through the pipes, drowning all 3 units beneath it. All 3 units suffered 10s of thousands of dollars worth of water damage.
The HOA (Home Owners Association) thought they had primary insurance (since the bad happened in a common area) so called their insurance company to begin the claim and start damage repair in all the condos, including Frieda’s unit. This was on a Saturday to boot, not too many folks around to
consult with, so the idea was to get Frieda, her family and cats to a dry and warm place. She was quickly moved to a hotel where she could be comfortable during the month to 2 months she would need for the recovery of her unit. Incidentally, this happened the week before Christmas…talk about Yule tide cheer.
On the following Tuesday, the HOA got the news that their CCR’s specifically state that the individual owner’s insurance policy is primary, and the HOA policy is actually prohibited from covering ANYTHING inside an owners unit. Nada.., nothing,… not even a split hair on her cat’s head.
The two homeowners above her had more than enough insurance to cover the damage, but Frieda and her agent had decided on minimal coverage to only include personal property and a slight structural provision of 18,000. The disaster clean up (removing the water, drying out the condo, and ripping out what was damaged, basically gutting the unit) alone amounted to more than 15,000, leaving her very little to replace sheet rock, insulation, baseboards, carpets, painting etc. and living in a hotel for 2 months.
Long story short (too late you scoff), she is now digging into her limited savings to cover the cost of her disaster.
The moral? If you own a home, whether it is a condo, townhome, single family home, twin home, modular home or tree house, Check out your insurance, talk with your agent, read your CCR’s, and make sure you are covered correctly for the cost of a disaster.
Read MoreWhy do I Need A Home Warranty?
- Protect Your Home
Since the revision of the Utah Real Estate Purchase Contract went into effect on Jan 1, 2009, it is even more important for homebuyers in Salt Lake and indeed all of Utah to protect themselves with a home warranty.
The section of the Utah Real Estate Purchase Contract that required home sellers to warranty all plumbing, heating, aircoinditioning, appliances, roofs etc. has been eliminated, so essentially..well not essentially but actually, home purchases in Utah are “as is“.
What Is A Home Warranty?
First, a Home Warranty is for Your protection after you move into your new home. It is essentially an insurance policy. Coverage begins on the day you take possession of your new home and can cover, depending on the company, appliances i.e. fridge, stove, washer, dryer, water heater etc, the heating, electrical, plumbing (within the house, not outside), air conditioning , foundation and roof for the period of usually one year. Some companies offer an extension for an additional fee.
How Much Is A Home Warranty?
Fees for a home warranty can run from $275-$450 depending on the company and what kind of coverage you choose, and In the Utah Real Estate Purchase Contract; there is even a section that deals with Home Warranties. You must state whether you are requesting one or not. The fee is paid as part of closing costs at settlement and may be paid by either the seller or the buyer.
Who needs a Home Warranty?
Everyone purchasing an existing home, because although everything might be great during your inspections, some times “stuff” happens. We have seen water heaters burst, whole plumbing systems give out, furnaces that just wanted to die, and just about everything under the sun! The cool thing about it…you call the home warranty people, they send a licensed company out to assess the problem, you pay a service call fee (around $60 or so again depending on the company) and voila….it is either fixed or replaced!
What Does A Home Warranty Do For You?
What this does for a buyer and the seller is keep you out of litigation. The new Purchase Contract in Utah states that the home is pretty much sold “as is” and there are no warranties implied or stated (and we are talking only about Utah, where we are licensed, we do not know about other states’ laws), so a home warranty is a great solution for your protection! We always recommend it and even have our clients sign a waiver when they decide they don’t want it.
There are many Home Warranty Companies…..check out what they cover, and how much they charge, but we highly recommend that you include one in any home purchase you make! If you want some recommendations, give us a call!
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