While a home inspection is now a given when purchasing a new home, hiring a professional Salt Lake City Utah home inspector does not guarantee that a newly purchased house isn’t harboring any unpleasant surprises. What does that mean for the home buyer? More costs that turn out to be completely useless?

Not exactly.

By and large, Salt Lake City Utah home inspectors or just home inspectors in general are poorly regulated. The level of performance of each professional varies widely. In fact, according to the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI), a trade group based in Des Plaines, Illinois, only about 14 states require occupational licenses. And among those that do require licenses, only very few follow the lead of New Jersey, where inspectors must pass a lengthy written test and perform as many as 400 inspections. Not only that, but on some cases, they are even required to complete a training program at a state-approved home inspection school before being accredited.

Salt Lake City Utah home inspectors and other inspectors in many other states do not require certification requirements at all. Then, again, Salt Lake City Utah home inspectors are an indispensable workforce for the home buying community. So what do you, as a home buyer, have to do to protect your interest and hire a truly professional Salt Lake City Utah home inspector?

Here’s a list of what you can do to get the most out of your home inspection.

Look for the Inspection Clause

The great thing about Salt Lake City Utah home inspectors these days is that their work is so popular that not only home buyers require them, but home sellers as well. In fact, a lot of home sellers hire Salt Lake City Utah home inspectors to assess their homes in order to avoid any unpleasant surprises when they’re ready to close on a sale. This way repairs can be made knowing that the repair issue will eventually come up.

A Due Dilligence clause is part of the Utah Real Estate Purchase Contract item number 8.  8.1 indicates that the buyers obligation to purchase is conditioned the buyers "due dilligence" which includes a review and approval of a home inspection.  The buyer can cancel the contract based on inspection of the home as long as it is done prior to the indicated deadline date.  The results of the inspection can also be used to ask the seller to fix trouble spots, or to adjust the selling price to cover the cost of necessary repairs.

References

With the absence of any state laws regulating the licensing of Salt Lake City Utah home inspectors, the best place to turn to would be trade associations. These types of organizations usually have a better barometer of a Salt Lake City Utah home inspector’s experience and skills than the typical word of mouth references you get either from your real estate agent or a few friends.

Get the Results in Writing

After performing an inspection, a Salt Lake City Utah home inspector is required to give you a copy of the report he made in a few days. Pay attention to this report as it is often an excellent gauge of how exhaustive the work is. If it’s little more than a checklist, then it’s insufficient. A complete report can be 20 to 100 pages long.

Review The Home With The Inspector

I always strongly suggest that if at all possible for my client to join the inspector the last half hour to review the findings of the report and to have a few things pointed out about the home that is good knowledge for a future homeowner.

There is a lot of free information available to you about buying, selling or investing in Salt Lake City Utah real estate. For complete information about the Salt Lake City Utah real estate market including current homes for sale, property values and more please visit the most complete website online dedicated to everything Salt Lake City Utah real estate at www.BuySaltLakeHomes.com So please feel free to contact me with any of your mortgage questions and I will be more than glad to answer your queries. Call me on my cell at 801-518-4599 or email me at kathyo@kathyohomes.com.

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 Tags: Salt Lake City Utah Real Estate

Article's Author

Kathy Opolski
RE/MAX Associates
Salt Lake City, UT

Contact Kathy Opolski