Should you get a home inspection?

A house is undoubtedly one of the biggest single expenditures you'll ever make. So how can your protect yourself from a lemon?

One of the very best ways is to have a professional inspection performed.

On a side note, if your home is on the market and the thought of "passing" the inspection keeps you up nights consider having a pre-inspection performed. The expenditure may be worth it if it helps you shake the 3 a.m. mind-monkeys.

Your mortgage lender will almost certainly require that you have an inspection before they'll actually hand over the funds to buy the house but even if you're paying cash you should get one done.

Granted, it's not the most inexpensive two hours you'll ever pay for, but it may be one of the most important. Look at it this way - you can spend $300 on a home inspection and learn that the $5,000 roof needs to be replaced, the air conditioning doesn't work, the house has termites and the furnace is on its last legs before you sign on the dotted line or you can keep the $300 and pay for all that stuff later.

It's even a good idea to have a brand new home inspected because they aren't necessarily problem free either.

Before you make an official offer on the house make sure the contract includes an out in case the home inspection reveals more problems than you're willing to fix. Also, pay special attention to any deadlines, regarding inspection, in the contract. While your Realtor should point these out to you and pay special attention to them herself, it pays to be a secondary backup because you never know what can happen. And if you miss a deadline to protest issues with the inspection you could be out of luck.

If you do find problems you think the buyer should fix, don't rely on a verbal agreement; make sure you get it in writing.

A qualified inspector knows where to look for certain problems, often knows how serious the problem is and how easy it would be to fix (although he should not offer to fix it himself).

Ask friends and family or of course your Realtor to recommend an inspector they rely on. Note that you do not have to use the inspector your Realtor recommends. But they should be working with people that they trust and are usually happy to assist you if you need some names.

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