You own your home so why should you have an inspection now?

1. ARE YOU GETTING READY TO SELL THE HOME? ARE YOU CURIOUS ABOUT HOW IT WOULD DO IN AN INSPECTION? One of the best things you could do to prepare yourself to sell your property is actually know what’s going on and what you could do to help it show better, have less problems during inspections, and sell for a higher price. Even if you’re doing it AS IS, you’re better off being upfront because your establishing Trust and care for the next Steward of the home that cared for you for so long. If there are safety issues you do want to take care of that as much as you can or be up front about it. Being upfront is much better, because that way there isn’t surprise last minute deal breaker demands forcing you to make repairs or take a chunk out of the price you’re asking. Or you can decide to take care of the things that are wrong, even making improvements, and sell the home for more than you thought.
2. SAVE MONEY NOW INSTEAD OF BIG REPAIRS LATER – First of all it’s a good way to save money because the problem we find now is going to be cheaper to fix at this point, before it becomes worse or causes more damage or costs someone their health or life. Sometimes it’s something so simple you’d be surprised. Yes you could hire contractors but how do you know which one to get out there and to look where? That’s where a home inspector shines, we are experienced in homes with a general knowledge of all the systems and components and a keen eye for defects… Sure you could get your neighbor or friend or relative to look around, heck maybe you’re handy, that’s great, but there’s only so many favors you could ask and if you’re asking a professional, you understand that they’re going to find everything they can to make sure they get a good quote out to you for that job. On the other hand when you get me to inspect the property I’m not trying to make a punch list of stuff I intend to fix because we aren’t allowed to do that anyway, I’m not trying to pad a repair list. Literally not allowed by Illinois law for licensed home inspectors. I have no ulterior motive here, my job is simply to find out what’s up with the house so you could plan out what to do without any surprises. At that point you find your own professionals, or you take it on yourself depending on your level of skill, but quite often problems are very small rather than replacing the whole thing it’s sometimes just one part of it. But when you do an inspection on your own for maintenance needs, you could have a little honey-do list of fixes and repairs to make the home function better safer and more efficiently in regards to energy costs. Plus, this is not like a code inspection while you’re possibly fined and ordered to correct something within a specific timeline, why not be smart and be ahead of the game.
3. GET AHEAD OF HIDDEN SAFETY ISSUES BEFORE THEY ‘GET’ YOU– has it been a long time since your inspection when you first bought the property? Is the family expanding? Is there a baby on the way? What if there’s something unsafe and you didn’t know about it? Most homeowners don’t realize there’s an issue before it’s too late. I’ve been in thousands of homes of sellers and I noted that there were many times they were woefully unaware of dangerous conditions existing in their home. Home injuries are definitely a thing — do you think that because you haven’t heard of people getting injured in their own homes that often it doesn’t happen? Don’t think it would make the news but it sure does happen.  Actually surprising how often safety issues went unnoticed or ignored. Have you lived in at home so long you’ve kind of glossed over these things, Without Really visually picking them up? How long since you’ve had a new set of eyes? For a low cost comparable to let’s say the cost of a hospital stay or damage to the home, you could have a detailed report explaining issues.
4. DID YOU INHERIT THE HOME? & WHAT DO YOU REALLY KNOW ABOUT IT?  I mean… maybe your parents went through all the repairs and the ins and outs of home ownership and then here you are, now it’s your turn to handle that stuff, do you know what’s what when and how to do it? Do you want to know more? Do you want someone to kind of walk you through your own home and help you understand some of the systems what they might need what needs to be taken care of? Maybe learn about something that was pushed off for too long and it’s about time you get fixed? WELL I CAN DO THAT FOR YOU 🙂 Heck before 2003 in Illinois Home Inspection wasn’t even a licensed profession. How long ago did you buy your home?  Was there even an inspection or was it just a handshake thing? Maybe the more you know the better you’ll feel and the safer you’ll be. I can inspect that home and write a report on it , think of it like your own special home owners manual.