Do you need a home inspection?

Okay, I get a question all the time. Do I need to do an inspection? Who is responsible for the inspection? The buyer is always responsible for the inspection. If you are buying a house, it is up to you if you want to do an inspection and if you want to see if the house has any issues. You need to do your due diligence as a buyer. The seller will never do the inspection for you. It is always your responsibility. The inspection is to protect you as the buyer. On most size homes, the inspection is going to run between four to $500. You'll usually get a 20, 30 sometimes longer page report of any issues found in the house, and you go through that and determine what's important to you, and what isn't important to you.

Now that is different from the appraisal. The appraisal is simply the bank or the lender sending out their person to determine the value of the home. Now, do you always have to have an appraisal? No, if you have enough money down sometimes banks will waive that. If you pay cash, you never have to do an appraisal, so that is completely different. Now, if you do have to have an appraisal as a requirement for your loan though, guess what? You get to pay for that.

That's the difference between an appraisal and an inspection. Inspection is a buyer's due diligence. It's always a buyer's responsibility. I would never recommend buying a home without an inspection. An appraisal is for the bank to determine the value.