You know, it never ceases to amaze me the number of home buyers I’ve met – and continue to meet - who opt NOT to order a house inspection on their intended home ”purely based on the cost of the inspection fee!”For the record, I’m not just talking about would-be customers of my own, here - I’m referring to home buyers in general whom I’ve come into contact with at some time or other.
Little do these budget-minded folk realize that the “few hundred” dollars they’ve opted to save by not having a house inspection done, could well end up COSTING THEM THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS LATER ON!!!
Think about this…
Let’s say you had your eyes set on a $650,000 home somewhere in Auckland. You commissioned a house inspection as a precaution. Sure enough, when the inspection report came out it revealed some minor and ‘not so minor’ problems in and around the home that would need urgent attention. The report went on to say that ‘the estimated cost of repairs would be in the order of $18,000′.
Ok, now let’s look at what that house inspection cost you… let’s say, $400 all up.
Well, here’s the thing…
The estimated cost of repairs to the house equates to roughly “45 times” the cost of the inspection report! If you hadn’t asked for an inspection to be done, and had gone ahead and purchased the home for $650,000 (believing it to be fair value) anyway, you’d have ended up roughly $18,000 worse off for the deal.
However, armed with the irrefutable proof offered in the inspection report, you may well have ’saved’ yourself $18,000 in one of two ways:
1) You could’ve chosen not to proceed with the purchase and instead, looked for a property that was in better condition.
2) You could’ve negotiated with the vendor to reduce the purchase price in order to accommodate the cost of urgent repairs.
So, in answer to the question of “Is the cost of a house inspection justifed?”
You betcha!
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