What is a Home Inspection?

Potential home buyers often hire home inspectors to research a property and acquire a written report that details its condition, including an assessment of necessary or recommended repairs, maintenance concerns, and any other potentially costly issues. The home inspector will assess the physical structure of the home, from the foundation to the roof, as well as the home's systems. This assessment will determine if there are safety issues.
A home inspection can tell a homebuyer a lot about a newly constructed home or an existing house, and save them money and aggravation. For sellers, meanwhile, having an inspection done before putting their home on the market can afford them the chance to make structural repairs or upgrade and replace systems that may increase the likelihood of a sale.
Typically, a home inspection is done after a sales contract or purchase agreement between a buyer and a seller has been signed. For this reason, it's important that the contract include an inspection contingency (also known as a "due diligence" contingency), which allows a buyer time to find an inspector, schedule and attend—if so desired—an inspection, receive the inspector's report, and decide how to proceed based on the information provided.
Depending on the report's assessment, which can include everything from material defects that negatively impact a home's value to minor cosmetic defects, a buyer may decide to proceed with the sale, schedule additional inspections, renegotiate the sale price with the homeowner, ask that certain repairs be made, or cancel the contract. If the buyer requests major repairs, they may also ask for a reinspection with the original inspector to verify that the original problem identified has been remedied.