Do Home Inspectors kill deals?

Imagine yourself as a professional Real estate agent, who has worked weeks, months or even years with a client.
Countless hours spent with late night phone calls, early morning texts and emails.
Finally, an offer is made on a property and now its time for the dreaded home inspection.
Now as an experienced real estate professional, you know there are many ways a deal can fall through.

Septic issues, credit or financing to appraisals or buyer jitters are some of the ways, but the most common reason is the home inspection.

This doesn’t always have to be the way.
To help relieve some of the potential enormous stress from home inspections, this CAPHI Registered, WETT Certified Home Inspector who works for Bluenose Inspections has some insights that he would like to share with you. This coming from a home inspector, who has performed more than 5,000 home inspections in his career, and spent almost 15 years in the property insurance industry. So lets take a step back, and look at what really kills a real estate deal.

Buyers are Unprepared.

There are no formal courses in high school, or community college that teach new buyers how a house system works or how it performs. Most new buyers do not know how to perform general maintenance or repairs. Some buyers are new to Canada and have never needed a heat system before living here, or have lived in a wood framed home. Many buyers did not grow up working on their home with their parents or simply do not know the steps required to put together a maintenance plan for their home.

Proposed future repairs or required maintenance can intimidate the uninitiated.

Often, what makes an inspection so stressful is that the buyer is presented with a long list of trouble signs without proper explanation, which in turn, can in fact, sabotage a deal. Many real estate pros complain that some of the inspectors themselves seem to actually do their best to sabotage the deal they have worked on for days, weeks or even months.

From what I’ve seen and heard from professional realtors is that in many cases the inspectors used to work in construction, or they still do, hence their specific expertise can lead them to bombard buyers with what seems like endless lists of minor problems. To that end, my expertise lies in home insurance liability issues and building defects recognition. I don’t over emphasis what is normal maintenance and take my time to assure clients that all homes come with a certain amount of minor issues.

This is where a professional home inspector should step up and help with an educational experience to show how to identify potential issues and perform general maintenance instead of being presented in an alarmist fashion as some kind of scare tactic.

Simply explaining that some things are normal and every system has a life cycle and all systems require maintenance can help put a buyer’s mind at ease. Allowing you to move forward with closing the deal.

Buyers are not properly informed.

Systems in the home, have become more expensive and complex and buyers have less an understanding of how they are constructed or function.

Some systems are closed systems where specialized tools are required to access the components and unauthorized repairs can void warranties.

A good example of a complex system, that a buyer may not be properly educated in is a wood burning system. When buying or selling a home, if the home has a wood burning system, it should be WETT certified to ensure it meets a minimum code for some element of household safety. In most cases this certification will be required for home insurance purposes. 

Hiring a home inspector who is not WETT certified, to inspect a home with a wood stove is not serving your clients best interests as they will likely now have to pay for a second inspection from a true WETT certified professional. Bluenose Inspections, can inspect the home and WETT certify the wood burning appliance all in one visit.

In markets that are enduring tight inventory conditions, some buyers have a short amount of time for decision making as multiple offers and spontaneous action become normalized.
Buyers may be tempted to skip the inspection of this system as the insurance company didn’t ask about it when they issued the buyer a binder letter, to ensure the mortgage conditions.
Now, its 30 days after possession date, your buyer calls you because the insurance underwriter is asking for the WETT certification prior to issuing the Home Insurance Policy.
The wood burning appliance, gets properly inspected by a WETT certified inspector and it has been determined that it is non code compliant and could cost thousands to repair, or worse needs to be decommissioned. Your client is now in peril of having their insurance policy being cancelled by a registered letter, and you getting a negative review online.

This is a problem that could have been avoided simply by hiring the right WETT Certified professional either at the pre listing stage or prior to closing.
A wood burning system problem can be a significant cost to repair and “bring up to code”.
A cancelled insurance policy, and a bill for thousands in repairs, can make the likely hood of buyers’ remorse to be higher than normal and will likely result in the buyer turning their frustrations to you or the non WETT certified home inspector you referred to them. Avoid this painful situation.
Only hire a WETT certified home Inspector. Bluenose Inspections is WETT certified.

The home inspection business has changed.
When this inspector first started his career as a home inspector, he simply used a checklist type of inspection report, with a digital camera and clip board to document his findings.
Now, the process is the same, but the product is different. And buyers are more sophisticated and expect more.

This inspector uses a state-of-the-art inspection reporting software and CRM, and on every inspection the inspector uses a drone with a 4k camera and a state of the art thermal camera.
The business has also expanded to offer radon and sewer lateral inspections. All due to customer demand.

The reality is simple, your clients have substantially more information and data about the home they are considering buying than ever before. However, some do not process the technical knowledge to understand all the facts in a “big picture” scenario. Sometimes the inspection findings can alter the buyer’s perception of the purchase simply because they are focused on a small detail in the report that may or not seem relevant.

Please Do not make the mistake of blaming the inspector or the home.
Every buyer has different risk tolerances and knowing all the available facts can save all parties time, and heartache making for happy clients, more referrals and less talk about how a home inspection killed the deal.