Home ownership should be enjoyable and affordable for everyone.
While there are many laws, rules, and homeownership assistance programs in place to ensure home ownership is available to most everyone, it becomes apparent to many who have bought a home that the funds needed to purchase the house are often less costly than the defects that went undetected or unmentioned during the purchase process.
Unfortunately, with the large increase in the number of single women purchasing homes, comes that reality that the ‘system’, that is designed to get you in a home, does very little to prepare you for the shock of owning a home that has expensive and vexing defects and maintenance costs.
What follows are some of the shortcomings of the home purchase process in Texas.
Real Estate agents are allowed to recommend a Home Inspector that provides you, the buyer, with as little information as possible about the defects in your home; with no penalty to the agent.
Home Inspectors are being allowed by the Texas Real Estate Commission to pay for the agent’s Errors & Omissions Insurance deductible if you decide to file suit against your agent for giving you the bad advice that resulted in you unknowingly buying a house filled with old, antiquated and defective components.
Home Inspectors are now allowed to avoid mentioning long-standing Code violations.
Home Inspections that provide an extensive accounting of the condition of major systems and components are simply not provided by Home Inspectors that are more worried about future ‘business’ from agents that will continue to refer them “if the Inspector just doesn’t tell them too much”.
Home Warranties, now known as ‘residential service contracts’, are another tool utilized by agents to deflect anger from homeowners when they realize their ‘dream-home’ is a money pit.
As any woman will tell you, when it comes to dealing with the Service Industry, women are all too often the victims of being told of unnecessary repairs, unnecessary replacement of high cost components, price gouging, inferior work, etc.
This is really quite simple. Real estate agents working with and for their home buying clients have a fiduciary responsibility to recommend the most thorough Home Inspector. All too often, in the name of ‘DoinBizness’, this little fact gets conveniently overlooked.
There are, however, some steps all homebuyers can take when purchasing a home.
1. Before enlisting the services of a real estate agent, ‘interview’ them.
2. Ask the agent if they have ever received a demand letter that alleges impropriety on the agent’s part, or have been sued for any reason.
3. Ask the agent for the name(s) of the Home Inspector they recommend to their clients.
4. Ask the Inspector, in writing, if they have ever been sued or ever received a ‘demand letter’.
5. Ask what percentage of the Inspector’s marketing budget is spent on marketing to the real estate agents for ‘their’ business.
6. Check local records for lawsuits involving the Inspector and the Inspection Company you are thinking about hiring.
7. Ask for references with phone numbers. The more the better.
A thorough Inspection and Report is much more useful than its impact during the home purchase process. What follows are the various benefits of a diligent and detail oriented inspection.
• An immediate understanding of the overall condition of the house and its systems.
• Well-informed decision making.
• A detailed Report, with verbiage anyone can understand, creates a basis for obtaining detailed cost estimates for repairs and replacement of the defects found in the home. This reduces the risk of ‘misunderstandings’ about the true cost to correct the problems found in a home.
• Service technicians may be competent at the repairs that they have been asked to perform, yet are not adept at identifying all of the deficiencies. The more detailed the Home Inspection Report, the more complete and accurate the cost estimates will be from the service companies.
• Delivering the Inspection Report to the seller’s agent or the seller assists the seller with understanding the true condition of the house they are selling. It also requires them to disclose the report to any future potential purchasers should you not purchase the property. (Listing agents often refuse to accept the report or advise their seller’s to refuse acceptance of the report. This tactic allows the seller to feign ignorance about the condition of their home. This, of course, puts the sellers at risk of future litigation.)
• When a detailed Report is delivered to the seller, the seller is often happy that you, the buyer, are still interested in moving forward with negotiating ‘repairs’ or price.
• As importantly, once you purchase a home, as the weeks, months and years pass, systems and components do break, they do break-down. With this, comes the visit from the Service Company. When you are being told by the technician that the entire system needs to be replaced, what reference do you have? If you have kept track of that thorough and detailed Inspection Report, you can compare the Inspection Report with what you are being told by the Service Company.
• Home Inspectors are not required to report the remaining life expectancy of a system or component. This can create a huge problem for homeowners that are on a tight budget. For example, a composition shingle roof may not be leaking or have any visible defects, yet is approaching the end of its life expectancy.
• Finally, here is a scenario repeated all-too-often. You obtain Homeowners Insurance and immediately purchase the home after hiring an Inspector who provides a minimally functional inspection. The Inspector doesn’t tell you that the roof shingles are at or nearing the end of their useful life. A month after buying your new home, the insurance company sends an ‘auditor’ to inspect the general appearance of the exterior of the house. The insurance company then sends you a notice stating that you have 60 days to replace the roof, or they are cancelling your Homeowners Insurance Policy. What? You just purchased the home, and now you have to come up with five to fifteen thousand dollars ($5-15K) to install a new roof covering?
Being a well-informed homebuyer requires some effort and sound decision making.
When selecting a real estate agent, choose wisely.
When selecting a Home Inspector, do your homework.
