Home Inspections
In New York, it’s common practice to have home a home inspected by a licensed professional. These are sometimes referred to as engineer inspections or engineer reports. Regardless of what they may be called in your local area, when you should consider having a home inspected usually depends on you’re experience with buying or selling homes, or based on advice you may have received from your real estate agent or attorney.
In our experience, buyers will have a home inspected and then make an offer based, in part, upon the findings in the inspection report. However, some buyers attempt to reach an accepted offer with a seller and, if successful, the contract of sale must be contingent upon the buyer’s approval of the inspection report. In that event, it’s important that the contract include a precisely-worded provision that gives the buyer an escape clause that lets them out of the contract if they don’t like what they see in the report.
If the buyer and seller have reached an accepted offer after the inspections have been performed, then it’s important that the contract contain a provision that does not permit the buyer to cancel the contract.
Representing both buyers and sellers, our office usually recommends that inspections are performed before going into contract based on two main reasons.
First, if a buyer goes into contract but then decides they no longer want to move forward based on the inspections performed post-contract, a buyer may be liable for the attorney fees associated with the contract having been drafted and negotiated. Had the inspections been completed prior to going into contract, the buyer could have avoided those legal fees.
Second, when a buyer signs the contract of sale before inspections, he or she is still obligated to send the down payment check to the seller’s attorney who holds the money in escrow. If the buyer decides to kill the deal based on the inspectors’ reports, now the buyer has to wait for that money to be returned, which could take a few days, at least.
Of course, there are often bigger fish to fry when it comes to buying and selling real property in New York, i.e., obtaining a loan, so we recommend having a home inspected before trying to reach an accepted offer with a seller. Doing so will likely save you time and money overall.
Give us a ring or email us and let’s talk about how we can help you buy or sell your next home.