The Home Inspection

When there is an accepted offer on a home, you want to make sure the home is trouble free and devoid of safety and municipal concerns. By municipal concerns, I mean violations of town codes or open certificates of occupancy. A licensed building inspector is educated in these areas. They can pinpoint areas of concern and address their rectification. After an inspection ( yes you should be there), you will have a list of minor problems and or major problems if any. These are usually handled in one of three ways.. The first is that nothing is done about them., especially if the buyer is getting a good price on the home. The second is that the homeowner agrees to fix them. And, third the homeowner agrees to a lower price as a means of compensation. All three, of course, depend on a mutual agreement between buyer and seller. I work in Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties and in each of them, inspections are pretty much handled the same way. Although, zoning ordinances do vary from town to town. For example a fully finished basement may be fine in one town and an outright violation in another. All in all, the inspection should be primarily an education as to what needs to be updated, fixed or in extreme cases, replaced. During the inspection, there will also be a well test, if there is one; as well as a radon test to see if there is intrusion of the gas into the basement. Once there is a satisfactory inspection, we can move to the contracts...more to come