How The Process of Getting Your Home Inspection Works
Now that you’ve chosen a home, it’s time to get it inspected and you are probably curious about how the process works. Here are the steps in a typical home inspection and some information on how you can expect it to go.
1. Your purchase agreement has been signed and accepted by the seller of the home. You now have a fixed amount of time to get a home inspection performed. Your real estate agent will help you with knowing exactly how long that is. Normally it is 10 days from the purchase agreement.
2. You or your real estate agent will text, email, or call me to review the exact details of the home to get a price quote for a home inspection or any other services that you would like. Sodak Elite Home Inspections will request that you or your real estate agent text message your contact information including your name as you would like it to appear on the inspection report, phone number, email address, and address of the property to be inspected.
3. You will receive an inspection agreement in your email to review and digitally sign. Inspection agreements are a requirement on each home inspection by both the South Dakota Real Estate Commission, and the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors in order to maintain good standing as a licensed home inspector. Keep an eye on your junk, trash, or spam email folder in case these documents wind up there.
4. You will receive an invoice in your email that you can pay online with a credit or debit card, or ACH bank transfer. Payment for the inspection is due in full prior to the inspection being performed. Inspection reports are not emailed to you until the invoice is paid in full. Home inspection fees are not paid at closing for a couple of really good reasons. One reason is that a home inspector cannot have a financial interest in the final closing of a home sale because dependency on the sale closing can cause an inspector to not be fully objective in their inspection and reporting on the house. If an inspection is paid at closing, the home inspector is then dependent upon the home selling to get paid, which is an obvious financial interest in the sale of the home. This is a violation of the regulations of the South Dakota Real Estate Commission, the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors code of conduct, and the rules of errors and omissions insurance companies. There are very few areas of America where it is common for home inspections to be paid at closing, but it is a question that comes for from time to time for some reason.
5. The inspection will take place on the scheduled date and time. The on site portion of the inspection will take roughly 3-4 hours. If you want to be present at the inspection feel free to attend. Most times the buyer is not present simply because 3-4 hours of watching somebody check hundreds of fine detail items can get very monotonous to attend, and a full report with pictures will be coming in the near future anyway. In a lot of cases the buyer chooses to show up at the very end of the inspection just for a walk through of any of the more major items that will be on the report.
6. Within 24 hours of the completion of the on site portion of the inspection an inspection report (and radon report if you got a radon test completed) will be emailed to you. The report will be a link that directs you to your report for download and viewing. Again, check your junk mail folder for a link.
7. After taking time to review your report feel free to contact your inspector with any questions that you may have. Your real estate agent will guide you through the rest of the purchase process from here on out.
HAPPY HOUSE SHOPPING!!!
1. Your purchase agreement has been signed and accepted by the seller of the home. You now have a fixed amount of time to get a home inspection performed. Your real estate agent will help you with knowing exactly how long that is. Normally it is 10 days from the purchase agreement.
2. You or your real estate agent will text, email, or call me to review the exact details of the home to get a price quote for a home inspection or any other services that you would like. Sodak Elite Home Inspections will request that you or your real estate agent text message your contact information including your name as you would like it to appear on the inspection report, phone number, email address, and address of the property to be inspected.
3. You will receive an inspection agreement in your email to review and digitally sign. Inspection agreements are a requirement on each home inspection by both the South Dakota Real Estate Commission, and the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors in order to maintain good standing as a licensed home inspector. Keep an eye on your junk, trash, or spam email folder in case these documents wind up there.
4. You will receive an invoice in your email that you can pay online with a credit or debit card, or ACH bank transfer. Payment for the inspection is due in full prior to the inspection being performed. Inspection reports are not emailed to you until the invoice is paid in full. Home inspection fees are not paid at closing for a couple of really good reasons. One reason is that a home inspector cannot have a financial interest in the final closing of a home sale because dependency on the sale closing can cause an inspector to not be fully objective in their inspection and reporting on the house. If an inspection is paid at closing, the home inspector is then dependent upon the home selling to get paid, which is an obvious financial interest in the sale of the home. This is a violation of the regulations of the South Dakota Real Estate Commission, the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors code of conduct, and the rules of errors and omissions insurance companies. There are very few areas of America where it is common for home inspections to be paid at closing, but it is a question that comes for from time to time for some reason.
5. The inspection will take place on the scheduled date and time. The on site portion of the inspection will take roughly 3-4 hours. If you want to be present at the inspection feel free to attend. Most times the buyer is not present simply because 3-4 hours of watching somebody check hundreds of fine detail items can get very monotonous to attend, and a full report with pictures will be coming in the near future anyway. In a lot of cases the buyer chooses to show up at the very end of the inspection just for a walk through of any of the more major items that will be on the report.
6. Within 24 hours of the completion of the on site portion of the inspection an inspection report (and radon report if you got a radon test completed) will be emailed to you. The report will be a link that directs you to your report for download and viewing. Again, check your junk mail folder for a link.
7. After taking time to review your report feel free to contact your inspector with any questions that you may have. Your real estate agent will guide you through the rest of the purchase process from here on out.
HAPPY HOUSE SHOPPING!!!
