Home inspections: trick or treat?
It's Monday! Happy Halloween. Today, Sam Schneiderman, Broker-owner of Greater Boston Home Team
discusses how different agents view inspection reports.
During the course of a recent transaction in which I represented the buyer, the listing agent called me to tell me that she did not want me to send a copy of the inspection report to her the next time that I represented a buyer that was buying one of her listings. She went on to explain what I already knew; if she received a copy of the inspection, she was obligated to disclose that information to other potential buyers if she had to put the property back on the market. The problem, she explained, is that two different inspectors might come up with two different sets of findings on the same property. I presumed that to mean that it was possible that a second inspector might not find some of the problems that the first one found or that it is possible that the first inspector might have found “defects” that are not really defects at all, so why open up a can of worms by disclosing the results of the first inspection?
During the same week, I received an offer on one of my listings from an agent in one of the big franchise offices. That offer included the franchise’s inspection contingency clause, which stated that if the buyer terminated the agreement based on an adverse inspection, that the buyer should send only the relevant portions of the inspection report only if requested by the seller.
In both cases, it is obvious that the listing agents would prefer not to receive copies of inspection reports.
On the other hand, the following week I attended a real estate conference at which one of the agents recommended the use of home inspections before putting homes on the market so that her seller-clients could make major repairs or disclose the issues and price the home accordingly. She said that she provided the inspection reports to potential buyers. As a result, the buyers often accepted the inspection reports in lieu of hiring their own inspector.
In some states, pre-inspections are a normal part of listing a home for sale. Agents in those states have told me that it helps buyers and sellers understand the true condition of the property which results in a smoother transaction.
Most inspection reports that I have read include a clause stipulating that the inspection has been performed only for the person that paid for it and that it should not be relied upon by other parties. The inspection may also have been performed months earlier. In either case, that may also restrict or eliminate the inspector’s liability if a buyer relies on a faulty seller’s inspection.
It’s clear that an inspection report can be either a trick or a treat depending upon your point of view. What yours?
