Home-buyers: What to focus on during an inspection

There is no better feeling than the excitement of buying a new home. On one hand, you are full of emotions and expectations and on the other hand, you need to organize your finances and do proper research. Actually, there are more things that you should know before accepting the offer of your new home. For instance, you will need to make an inspection of the property, and here is the reason why: there can be plenty of problems hiding in there. If you are wondering what a home inspection means, it is a process that occurs after you make the offer on a home and it is accepted. Then, it comes the moment when you schedule a time with a qualified person and go through the home’s appliances, the system, and structure, and try to detect the problems they have and malfunctions and repairs that need to be made there. Here are some of the things you will need to focus on.

Electrical system

Some of the most common issues that come up here include exposed wiring, reversed polarity, electrical panels that have been modified incorrectly, multiple neutral wires in a slot, wiring flush against sharp corners, etc. A professional real estate agent, such as the ones from https://www.top10realestateagent.com.au/, would make sure to check this first, as rewiring a house can cost thousands of dollars, and is not worth the hassle. When these issues are unaddressed, they can pose serious risks. If by any chance there are electrical issues revealed by the inspection, you should consider that you need to invest in another type of inspection and that is a licensed electrician. 

Foundational damage

This refers to the structural integrity and the roof. The home inspector that you hired must also make sure that the house’s foundation is stable, but also that the roof is sound. The structural integrity of a building could be damaged by so many things and often has the most issues. These issues could be extremely costly, so you should make sure that you have a good check on the foundation.

Exterior damage

Exterior damage is everything you can see from outside of the house. Although it looks like something easy for detection, it needs to be examined with care. An experienced home inspector would have a list of the most common problems regarding this. He will need to check the roof, the chimney, the doors that don’t lock, the rest of the doors, as well as the pool tiles that are cracked. Regarding the chimney issues, your inspector should check for faults in the masonry around the chimney, and corrosion. Also, there has to be a proper check on the lead paint which is mostly an issue in older houses but it can happen in newer ones too. Regarding the doors, they are very important, especially the front door, so you need to make sure that they are functioning properly.

The flooring

One of the most common problems regarding the flooring is the wood-destroying insects. They include carpenter bees, carpenter ants, powder post beetles, and termites. The problems arise when they have been destroying the flooring and a lot of time has passed without detecting this issue. Additionally, when there is actually an inspection of flooring that is in plain sight, there should be a focus on the subfloors that are covered up with carpet, tile, or laminate. The reason for this is that they can cause some additional problems and that is why they should be attentively examined. The issues that can appear are weak wood in the subfloors, in addition to rotten wood that can be discovered by its strong moldy odor. 

Water drainage systems

Water can be one of the biggest enemies of your home. The point here is that you always tend to make the water flow away from your house and not towards it. The damage often happens to the foundation. For example, if gutters and spouts are not working as they should be, they can damage the foundation. The steps that could be taken by the home inspector at this point are to make sure that extra precautions are taken to avoid the possibility of having moldy walls. This can be done by wielding an infrared camera that finds this kind of damage. 

Feature Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash