Home Buying Tip #1

I am cheap. Cheaper than a five dollar hooker on toonie tuesdays. I don't like to spend money if I do not have to. When I went to buy my house, I had the "option" of getting a home inspection performed. It was going to cost me about $400 plus tax. $400 is a lot of money when you've only been out of school for a few months. My "frugality" forced me to reconsider this extra cost.

I had seen the house. I knew that there were some issues with the home. Hence, why the house was in my price range. I figured that a home inspection would just tell me some things I already knew.

One of the things that I already knew was the fact that the floor had sloped a little bit. As a result, I was concerned that there was something wrong with the structure of the building. I wanted to ensure that the house would not fall down. I decided that it would be best to perform the home inpection.

The home inspector was recommended by my real estate agent. I figured that my real estate agent should know someone that is either cheap, or really good. Anyways, the guy showed up one afternoon and we went through the house. The home inspector went up in the attic, up on the roof, in and out of the house, and down through the basement. I felt as if he was concerned that I was making a good investment. As we were going through the home, he ensured that he let me know what he was looking for and if he had found any problems in my home. He wanted me to ask questions if I had any.

With the exception of the stuff I had expected, the home inspector was able to identify that the furnace was nearing the end of its life. The furnace was short-cycling, but I had no idea what short-cycling even means. Short-cycling indicates that the furnace would turn on and off in a relatively quick period of time. This indicates that the safety device in the furnace is forcing the furnace off because of something that it does not like, like a dirty filter or something similar. The furnace goes back on because the temperature in the house needs to increase slightly. The On and Off nature of the furnace indicates that it is not as effective as before. It needs to be replaced.

Now, I should take a step back and mention that a tentative deal had been reached at this point with the seller. We had negotiated a price that we were both comfortable with, but it was subject to some conditions. One of the conditions happened to be the home inspection. Now, instead of the deal falling apart because of some extra costs associated with the furnace, we had an opportunity to re-negotiate the price again.

In the home inspection, there were a lot of items that were identified. These included some light fixtures that need to be replaced, some painting to be done, etc. There were other items that were identified that were larger, but were obvious from my own inspection. I had tried to gain a credit for some of these things, and had tried to gain a credit for the furnace. Obviously, since the other items were "known", I was not able to get a credit. I did, however, get a credit for the furnace.

In summary, the home inspection saved me $2000 on the purchase price. With the $400 paid out, the inspection more than paid for itself. In addition, I get the peace of mind of having the home inspection performed. I know that I shouldn't have too many surprises with the home.

Therefore, I'd recommend that you get a home inspection every time you purchase a home. In my situation, even if the furnace was found to be in good working order, I believe I would be able to negotiate a better price. The report looks intimidating and could be used as good leverage during negotiations. You should be able to negotiate at least the cost of the home inspection given that the report is very detailed.