About 14% of new home buyers—or one in seven—forgo a home inspection, a new survey shows. If this survey is correct from realtor magazine, there will be a lot of buyers remorse especially with the current price spike. Any suggestions on how we can reverse this ?
Don’t bet on remorse, most of the time buyers just get some credit from a home inspection. A lot of times it’s a full gut and there isn’t much to inspect. A lot of people buying them know how to assess the framing and the foundation, the rest will get replaced anyway. A new construction that was inspected by the city will be more or less okay, too unless there was a flood or some such, again, in majority of cases the inspector does not uncover anything major, just minor stuff that a lot of times in this market the seller will not credit for anyway. In many cases where the basement is fully finished and or it’s on a slab, the inspector cannot see enough, anyway. First home buyers definitely shouldn’t skip on it, however. IMO, you can only reverse it with a law that forces a home inspection or education. Market needs to cool off for it to reverse on its own. Just nature of the beast.
I just closed on one rental I sold. No inspection by buyers and out of the 13 offers, only 1 included an inspection clause. One person did have a pre-inspection done but they were nowhere close to the closing price.
I have a 2nd property under contract and closing in a couple weeks. No inspection by buyers. Out of the 5 offers, 2 requested an inspection and both were low on price.
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Something isn’t right with that 14%. I don’t think it’s that low during a balanced market. Over the years I’ve talked to a lot of inspectors and agents and many seem to think around 25% of closed sales skip the inspection for whatever reason. It could be the house is being bought/sold within family, new construction that the buyers trust the city inspectors or just people who think they know houses and don’t value what we do.
Maybe for a realtor magazine agents are afraid to admit they let buyers go through a transaction without an inspection? In any case I think currently S Stanczyk’s experience and stats are closer to what is really a happening.
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Agree.
Note: The area mentioned in the link is primarily the Minneapolis/St.Paul MN area.
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Its often because they have a five-day inspection period and can’t find an available inspector in our area.
Something new popped up this weekend: “You can do an inspection, but the price is firm and we won’t be paying for any repairs, regardless of what the problem is.”
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“New homes” or existing homes and “First time buyers”?
If the article is about “New Homes” that percentage is WAY TO LOW!!
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Wishing that was true in my market, where do I need to move to?
Brian Hill
Professional Home Inspector
InterNACHI OH license 2019005340
Hill Home Inspection LLC
(330) 503-2888
The Villages, Florida. But, like everything, this too will pass.
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That kind of thing is common around here.
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Around here too, for at least a year now. A different way of saying “Sold as is.”
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I know a lot of it is due to these 5 day closings, or they are going to buy anyway. A home inspection is for two reasons. uncovering items that will cost (big) money to repair and to uncover Safety related problems (things that may have you waking up in the morning to find your family Dead). No matter what the contingencies are, No real excuse given by The Agent should make a client that is well represented, forgo an inspection.
I’ll say it right now that there are a lot of Agents loving this “buy as is” market as they do not have to loose out on 3% of their fee when they negotiate for problems found at inspection. Just how motivated is any agent when they are loosing $300 when they negotiate for $10,000 in repairs??
No such thing as a “Buyer’s Agent”. The HI is really the only person that is truly looking out for the home buyer. All others make money directly related to the amount the home sells for. Higher price = Mo’ Money.
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And they do not have to write an inspection amendment. Smooth sailing from their perspective…for now. Until the lawsuits start coming in.
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I completely agree. More buyers should know this, Selecting an agent that wants major issues found and highly encouraging clients to get home inspections are hard to find. I do very detailed inspections and have yet to have one of my clients say you gave me too much information! Almost all of my new business comes from google advertising and review ratings. I refuse to give in to agents for a two-hour cushy report. I suppose I would get more inspections, but I like having a clean conscience that I did the best for my clients.
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That’s a good article. Many different viewpoints. An interesting tidbit from the article is that the Board of Registration of Home Inspectors stated there is not much they can do about it due to their limited power.
Nick touched on this in the podcast posted a few days ago. The licensed states that have published clarification prohibiting home inspectors from performing walk-throughs likely don’t have a standing to make such a proclamation. The inspection licensing bureaucrats cannot create law.
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We’re seeing more of this here in our area now. Especially relocations (CA/IL/WA/OR/etc) who are purchasing homes sight unseen. They are calling now to get their inspections “after the fact” to find out “what they’ve done to themselves”.
New builds these days are showing worse than existing construction. Had 3 in the last six months that needed a brick wall taken down and redone (the entire back of the home), a roof that looked like it was put on by the “Helen Keller School of Kwality Roofing” had to be taken off and redone, and one structural engineer and serious truss repairs later on #3 the buyers were able to move in.
Shake my head every day but the “annual inspection” and “builder’s warranty” inspections are making bank…so we got that going for us, feeling pretty good about that!
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I can see the lure to stop this practice by HI industry leaders. However, the buyers will just go “down” the food chain to contractors, retired inspectors and Uncle Joe’s because something is better than nothing.
I am curious, how will this protect the public in the end?
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I think the only way it could benefit the public is by educating them that they are not getting a “home inspection” and that their recourse is severely limited when paying for a “consultation.”
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