A homeowner survey released this week by the National Association of Realtors, and the American Society of Home Inspectors concludes that more than 3/4s of all American homebuyers now rely on a professional inspection to evaluate their prospective new home. That's up from probably less than 10 percent twenty years ago, when buyer beware was a real estate truism.

So, more than 75 percent of all American homebuyers are now protected against undisclosed defects in their new homes? Not exactly.

Even if we were to assume that ALL home inspectors are properly trained, educated, and insured (none of which are fair assumptions), today's home inspection popularity does not provide the perfect protection many home buyers believe they are getting.

A home inspection is a visual, non-invasive, non-technically exhaustive, assessment of a property -- and it's quick! In the classic American center hall colonial with 4 bedrooms and 2200 square feet of living space, a competent home inspector may spend two hours. That's two hours to inspect the site, the foundations, the framing, the roof, the heating system, the cooling system, the plumbing system, the electrical system, and so on. This two-hour process, while covering most matters of concern, simply cannot alert a buyer of ALL near term and future repair and replacement expenses -- it takes 10 percent of the two hours just to set up and break down the ladder!

In addition to the impracticality of a home inspector investing 8 hours in each home, many house defects are simply not visible. Sometimes an imminent equipment failure does not provide any observable indication of the impending failure. Sometimes defect indicators are concealed by furniture, walls, or floor finishes.

Many home buyers understand that an inspector cannot tell them about conditions concealed behind walls, but it's not unusual for a home inspection client to find defects in a new home that -- on the surface -- may appear obvious. A few of the more common items that fit into this group include:

• Failed Thermal Seals in Windows. When the seal of the double or triple glazed window fails, condensation forms between the panes. It's often quite overt, but the dew point most be reached before the condition is observable. A hypothetical window or set of windows with recently broken seals may look fine at 3 PM when the afternoon warmth precludes condensation. But two weeks later, at 8 AM when the buyers move in, the problem may be overt enough to compel the buyer to utter the phrase that home inspectors hate most: "Any idiot could have seen this!"

• Inoperable Cooling System. In many parts of the country, it's customary for home inspectors to not test conventional cooling systems in the winter to avoid damaging the compressor at start up. There have been more than a few homebuyers who subsequently settled in the spring, moved in, and then turned on the air conditioner only to hear the silence of an inoperable unit -- usually followed by the not-so-silent sound of "Any idiot could have seen this!"

• Intermittent Basement Water Penetration. Investigation for indications of water in a basement is a high priority for most home inspectors -- and most do it well. Most home inspectors can spot even subtle indications of real basement water problems. But surface water drainage patterns change, exterior damproofing wears, and sometimes that "once every ten year" rainfall occurs shortly after settlement. For the new home owners who find a few inches of water in a basement that the home inspector saw when dry, the common retort is "Any idiot could have seen this!"

A well-performed home inspection, by a properly-trained inspector, can substantially reduce the inherent risks associated with buying a new home -- but even the best home inspection is a process of risk reduction, not risk elimination.

For more articles by Andrew Kleeman, please press here.

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Copyright 2001 Andrew Kleeman. Posted by Realty Times with permission.

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Published: April 6, 2001

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