Inspection before bid

Can you get a house you are interested in inspected before you put a bid in? Don't want to waste time haggeling over a price if the inspection is bad!

Re: Inspection before bid

You'd rather spend money for an inspection than spend a day or two coming to an agreement on price?

Re: Inspection before bid

there's a little more involved, including selling our house because the sale is contingent to selling ours and I just don't want to go through all the hassle of getting our house ready to go on the market unless this house is in good shape - it's an older house so that is why the inspection is so important.

Re: Inspection before bid

I have never heard of that, and I am not sure I would agree on that prior to agreeing to price. We had people bid on our house and we couldn't agree to price. I wouldnt want to put in hte hours of being home with an inspector to not be able to agree on a price.

Also in this market if I heard that a sale would be contingent on the buyer selling there house, there is no way I would want to waste my time. Sorry.

Re: Inspection before bid

You should get an architect to inspect. I know a great one we are using for our extention. Usually the inspector is there to protect the bank, not you...

Re: Inspection before bid

Actually, the inspector is there to protect the buyer. The inspector is selected by the buyer, whereas the appraiser is sent by the bank and ultimately protects the bank's interest in the deal.

Banks usually do require certain things, though (depending on the type of loan you are getting), including a termite inspection. Many inspectors are licensed to do both, and it's good to get them done at the same time, if you can. Some inspectors are also engineers, and that can be a plus.

But many people put too much stock in a home inspection. They are great to have, and I wouldn't advise any of my customers to waive the inspection. However, the inspector can only see what's visible to him (of course, he has a more knowledgeable and experienced eye than the average person). But he cannot open up walls, for example, to look for problems that are not evident from a surface inspection. Often, inspectors flag potential problems, but recommend that a specialist come in for further inspection. So it's not a be all/end all guarantee that there's nothing wrong with the house.

As far as timing, most people do the inspection after their offer is accepted but BEFORE contracts are signed. I usually have people get an inspector in within a day or so of their offer being accepted. That way, if there are problems, everyone knows about them and any negotiated repairs can be part of the contract. But until contracts are signed, no one has really committed to the deal - - the sellers can take a higher offer and usually the property is still being shown.

So I don't see the down side of making an offer and THEN doing the home inspection, because you aren't locked into the deal until the contracts are signed. The home inspection costs, on average, $400-500 (obviously, it can be more for a huge home), and that doesn't even include the termite inspection fee. That can add up if you do that for each home you are interested in before you make an offer or have a sense of whether your offer will be accepted.

Of course, the parties can agree to anything, so there's no reason why you can't do an inspection first, but if it's an occupied home, the seller needs to agree to give you access, and that may be a hurdle. It's definitely unorthodox, especially if there aren't giant red flags with the house. Does it appear fairly well maintained?

I also agree with the pp that you are much better off selling your home first and then finding a new home. These days, sellers tend to shy away from deals that are contingent on buyers selling their home, given the uncertainty of when it will happen, if it happens at all. You will be in a MUCH better negotiating position if you don't have to sell in order to be able to buy, if that's possible.

Re: Inspection before bid

we only got the inspection done after our offer was accepted. We actually did this twice, the first time around we had an offer that was accepted but the inspector notified us of a faulty sewage problem so we withdrew our offer. The next house we had an offer accepted on we did another inspection (the guy was nice enough to give us a little bit of a discount the second time around) and it went through so we moved forward with the contract process.

If it were me, I would say if they accepted your offer then do the inspection before you go to contract, because you can always withdraw your offer if anything goes wrong.

Re: Inspection before bid

Are you prepared to pay $300/400 for an inspection on every house you like?

It doesn't really make sense to pay for an inspection on a house that the seller's may not even want to sell to you.

It is better to haggle the day or two on price, then get an inspection. It shows you're committed to the house then (even though they can still take other offers until a contract is created).

If there is something wrong with the house you then use that as leverage to get $$ off the cost of the house (even after agreeing on a price) or have them fix the issues so you don't have to.

Re: Inspection before bid