Everything You Should Know About a Pre-Offer Inspection

If you are a buyer being asked to waive your inspection contingency, you should consider a Pre-Offer Inspection! While a Pre-Offer Inspection doesn’t cover everything a Full Home Inspection covers, it can detect issues with your home and help provide a plan to mitigate them.

What is a Pre-Offer Inspection?

A Pre-Offer Inspection is a visual inspection of a buyer’s prospective home before an offer is made. These inspections are particularly useful in hot housing markets where buyers fear they will lose the house, or they’re being asked to waive their inspection contingency. Before hiring a home inspector to conduct a Pre-Offer Inspection, the buyer should first seek permission from the seller. Since this inspection takes place before the buyer submits an offer, a walkthrough of the home should never occur without the seller’s permission.

Why Should a Buyer Get a Pre-Offer Inspection?

As mentioned before, a Pre-Offer Inspection is particularly useful in a hot housing market, especially when the seller is asking the buyer to waive their inspection contingency. In this case, the buyer can gain some peace of mind about the condition of the home they are looking to purchase.

Additionally, a Pre-Offer Inspection gives the buyer more information about the home so they can make an educated offer. If there are issues found with the home, the buyer now has the opportunity to negotiate a better price or ask that the issues be mitigated before moving in.

Finally, in a hot housing market, everything moves very quickly, but a Pre-Offer Inspection gives the buyer time to take a step back and think and can often help the buyer re-evaluate the situation to make the decision that is right for them. After all, a home is one of the biggest investments one will make in their life, they have to be sure about it.

In any case, sellers should not be weary of Pre-Offer Inspection as they benefit from it as well.

Pre-Offer Inspection vs. Full Home Inspection

Pre-Offer Inspection

A Pre-Offer Inspection is a slightly less thorough version of a Full Home Inspection. During this inspection, the trained and professional home inspector will walk through the home visually checking its key components including:

• Exterior – Including the siding, porches, windows, decks, grading, driveway, drainage, and chimney
• Structure – Including the foundation, walls, ceilings, and framing
• Roof – Including the shingles and gutters
• HVAC – Including the heating and cooling systems, furnace, ventilation, and energy supply mechanisms
• Plumbing – Including pipes, plumbing, and supply lines
• Electrical – Including electrical wiring, circuit breaker, fuses (if applicable), and electrical panels

Full Home Inspection

A Full Home Inspection is a detailed and thorough inspection of a home and all its components. It is recommended that all home buyers have a Full Home Inspection before closing as it can help identify issues with the home that might otherwise be overlooked or missed without a trained professional.

During a Full Home Inspection, the inspector will carefully inspect over 300 items in the home, including:

• Structure, including the foundation, roof, porches and decks
• Heating and air conditioning systems
• Electrical system
• Plumbing system and fixtures, including the water heater
• Attic, basement and crawlspace
• Fireplace and chimney
• Interior and exterior doors, walls, stairways, and windows
• Bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchen and appliances

While these two inspections are very similar in the areas of the home they inspect, they still play very different roles in the homebuying process. A Pre-Offer Inspection is designed to help you make an offer with confidence on your potential dream home; whereas a Full Home Inspection is designed to help protect you and your investment once an offer has been made and you are under contract. If you order a Pre-Offer Inspection on a home, don’t forget to still have a Full Home Inspection conducted on the property before closing, unless the inspection contingency is waived. In that case, consider having a Post-Close Inspection or your annual Home Maintenance Inspection to give you peace of mind.

Buying a house is stressful enough, you shouldn’t have to worry about looking around for a trusted and licensed home inspector. With all your inspection needs, WIN Home Inspection has you covered! Our licensed, trained, and insured home inspectors would love to perform Pre-Offer Inspection for you. Find a WIN home inspector near you and schedule your Pre-Offer Inspection today!