Once a contract has been agreed upon, schedule a home inspection asap.
Ideally, the inspection should occur within the next 2-3 days, however, during the busy spring and summer months, inspectors may be booked out up to a week or more in advance. It’s important that the home inspection occur quickly as it often takes the inspector 1-2 days to write the report after the inspection. Once the report is written we still need some time to review the report and ask the seller for any credits or repairs before the inspection objection deadline, which is typically 7-10 business days after the contract is signed (refer to your contract for the exact date).
Plan to attend the inspection which will take approximately 2 hours for a condo and 3 hours for a single family home. Inspectors usually only work Mon – Fri and do not work evenings or weekends so you will probably need to arrange to be off work for the inspection. Wear comfortable clothes which can get dirty as the inspector may want to show you something in the basement, on the roof, etc.
Legally we are not supposed to schedule the home inspection for you so this is something you need to do. Our favorite home inspectors are:
Dirck Parsons: 818-314-3354
Ryan Isaacson: 303-601-1846 or ryanike@msn.com
Scott Home Inspection: 303.373.2424
Insight Inspections: Darwin Wissink 303.652.3828
Once the inspection is scheduled, let us know so we can confirm that day and time will work with the seller’s Realtor. Plan to bring your checkbook or credit card to the inspection to pay the inspector. While it's ideal for you to attend the inspection, you do not have to and a lot of buyers don't attend the full inspection. Rather some buyers just attend the last 30 - 60 minutes so the inspector can go over the findings with you.
Additional Inspections
In addition to the regular inspection, depending on the home you may want to order additional inspections. If you're buying a condo below the 3rd floor or a single family home/townhouse we always recommend having a radon test conducted since CO has high radon levels in general. If you're buying a townhouse or single family house we also recommend having a pest inspection done as well as a sewer scope done to make sure the sewer line is in good shape. Other optional inspections could include but are not limited to: a chimney scan, exhaustive electrical inspection and more.
Quotes
If you want to have work done on the house, the inspection is a great time to have contractors stop by to give you quotes as we cannot guarantee access to the house again beyond the inspection. If you want to invite service providers, please do so and let us know. They should come during the first 90 minutes of the inspection so there's time for them to give you estimates. Otherwise, if you need service provider recommendations for quotes just let us know and we'd be happy to help set up estimates for you.
