Inspect & Appraise

Step 7: Inspections and Appraisal

I am a huge advocate of making any offer to purchase contingent on a home inspection. We have offered on homes that look great during a simple walk through, but upon inspection have revealed themselves to be a money pit which caused us to walk away. Trust me, it will be the best money you ever spend.
 
Inspections will save you $$$$! 
 
With that said, I am not big on general home inspection companies and prefer to hire experts in each field to complete the inspections. Get a plumber, electrician, roofer, structural engineer, and any other professional you deem necessary to come out. At the same time as the inspections, you can ask for bids for any necessary repair work. Hiring experts in their fields has proven to be no more expensive to us than hiring a general inspection company and we can then present the seller with actual repair bids for work needed when we negotiate the needed repairs.
 
Once we are through inspections and ready to go forward with the purchase, we have the appraisal done. This is typically ordered by your lender, so you will need to communicate when you are ready for the appraisal. If the property appraises at or above your offer price, then you are all set. However, sometimes it comes in below your offer. At this point you typically have 3 options: Walk away from the deal, renegotiate the price with the seller, or bring the difference in price to closing yourself.