Worried about the Price of an Inspection?

By: Fred Willcox

Copyright©  2010

All Rights Reserved.

If you have limited funds with which to buy a house, you need a really good real estate inspection. It is almost always to your advantage to buy a home rather than rent. But if you are buying a $100,000 house and the air conditioning equipment fails in the first year, will you be able to afford five to eight thousand dollars for a new air conditioning system? Or can you live without air conditioning? It is true that you may be able buy an air conditioning system that works for around three thousand dollars however, that system will not operate efficiently and will cost you many more dollars to operate.

People get rich because they learn how to use money wisely. It may not be as much fun to spend $250 to $300 more for a real estate inspection but, the money you spend for a well educated, experienced, thorough, detailed real estate inspector will almost always save you thousands of dollars over the newer, less knowledgeable and less thorough but less expensive inspector.

Most of my clients buy houses valued from $500,000 up. If their air conditioner fails, they can afford a new one. They won’t like having to buy one, but they can. It is those of you who are buying the lesser priced houses who really need my services.

The well educated, detailed real estate inspector is going to see problems that are likely going to cause you problems immediately or in the near future. While no one can predict when any mechanical appliance or any system will fail, the older (meaning the inspector has more time in the profession), experienced inspector is going to know much more about indications of failure than the newer inspector who is just going to note that an appliance or system operates.

Think about the difference between price and cost before you decide on an inspector. Price is the amount of money you pay the inspector. Cost is the amount of money you are out because the inspector you chose was not experienced and thorough. Price hurts only for a moment. Costs can mount up and go on and on and on for years.

In the Greater Houston market, a well qualified, experienced inspector is going to charge around $400 to $500 for an inspection of a 2,000 square foot house. The inspector will be at the house for 3 to 4 hours and will need 2 to 3 hours to write your report. At $500, you are paying the inspector one-half of one percent (0.5%) of the price of the house. That’s not much.

You can get an inspection for around $150. That inspector will be at the house for about an hour and will hand you his report when he leaves.

Which one do you think will do a better job for you?

Yes, there are good, quality houses for you to buy for $100,000. Your odds of buying one of those good, quality houses are greatly increased by using a good, experienced real estate inspector. Spend your money wisely and grow rich over time.