You can’t be too careful when buying a home. You can’t always rely on what the seller tells you, and the realtor could be no better. Both of them want to sell the home for as high a value as they can, so of course many of them will keep from mentioning some problems.

It’s times like these you want a trusted home inspector to supply you with home inspection reports to either confirm what the seller is telling you, or to give you bargaining chips to work with. If nothing else, you want to know exactly what it is you’re buying and if it’s worth closing on the sale. At the end of the day, though, sellers should disclose and buyers should ask.

This begs the question, though: how reliable is the home inspector? Is the cost of home inspection worth the trouble of getting a home inspector? Well, of course it’s worth the cost to have your home inspection. It’s only going to be worth it if the residential inspector is reliable, though.

The following are five items that the typical home inspector could overlook:

1. Kitchen Sink – an inspector in a hurry will quickly check the sink for flow-rate, discoloration of water, and obvious leaks in the piping. He should also look for less obvious leaks and determine how hot or cold the water can get. These can get overlooked, however.

2. Electrical Outlets – as important as it is to know how functional and safe these little guys are, it’s possible that a few of them can be overlooked (there are a lot!).

3. Basement Water – obvious signs of water damage (whether recent or recurring) are investigated in the basement areas, but if new work has been done in the basement or the damage has been cleverly covered up, a careless inspector could overlook the underlying problem.

4. Attic – the presence of insects and mold is the main concern of an attic inspection. This should only be one aspect of it, however. Another equally important area that is sometimes overlooked is the load-bearing capacity of all of the floor boards. As an attic will likely be used for storage, you should know its limits!

5. Roof – an inspector should gain access to the roof so he can closely examine it for any defects or damage. An inspector may try to observe the roof from the ground with binoculars, especially if large sections of the roof are visible from the yard or driveway. This is adequate in some situations, but the inspector runs the risk of overlooking something.

You should know that the average home inspection takes approximately two to four hours, depending on the size of the home. If the inspector is finished in a lot less time, he may have rushed through. Hurrying through a job results in oversights and mistakes.

Look to a home inspection service that promises to provide its home inspectors with the time they need to do a superb job inspecting your home.