Top common problems that may increase home inspection cost

Common Home Inspection Problems

How you negotiate repairs after a home inspection depends on what you find. Your home inspector will be your guide and your eyes during the inspection process, and will be able to alert you of anything that may be a cause for negotiations.

Here are nine of the most common issues you may come across during the home inspection:

1. Plumbing issues

   Leaking faucets, inadequate water pressure, drainage problems. Top 10 beatiful places to visit in the world

2. Mold and mildew
   

   In bathrooms, basements, and anywhere else water might congregate.

3. Improper grading
   

   Water in the basement suggests that the home might be improperly graded, i.e. due to erosion or other issues rain and other moisture sources are able to seep into the property’s foundation.

4. Faulty electrical wiring
   

   Broken outlets, open junction boxes, circuit overloads.

5. Roof issues
   

   Missing or deteriorated shingles, missing or deteriorated flashings (the material the covers roof joints), issues with the bricks or other materials surrounding the chimney.

6. Foundation issues
   

   Cracks, chips, slopes, other types of concrete degradations.

7. Appliance issues
   

   Improperly functioning kitchen appliances, smoke and/or carbon monoxide detectors, and other home appliances.

8. Heating and cooling inefficiencies
   

   Improper ventilation, improper heat distribution, dirty heating or boiling systems.

9. Window and door issues
   

   Sticking windows and doors, cracks, draft leaks.

Most houses won’t pass a home inspection without presenting with at least a couple issues. Most of the time these issues will be relatively minor, since otherwise the seller likely would have known about it before putting the home on the market.

It’s important to note that not all issues warrant negotiations. When you negotiate repairs after a home inspection your goal is to get any major problems taken care of particularly things that might have had an impact on your decision to purchase the home or the offer that you made.

It is not however an opportunity to make a wish list of requests that the seller has to meet.

Remember, you can still back out of the sale at this point, so if the issues are too overwhelming (for example, if there are problems with the foundation that will require tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of repair costs) it may be something worth considering.