Getting the Most From Your Home Inspection: 

Even though more than 40% of resale contracts now carry Home Inspection Contingency Clauses, few buyers really know how to get the greatest benefit from this work. 

Savvy home buyers need to know which houses are good deals, flaws and all. This often requires that realistic relative comparisons can be quickly made. 

What You Should Be Doing When You Are Looking: 

Do a little inspecting on your own when you visit potential houses and you will become house and system savvy fast. Spending at least 10 inspection dedicated minutes in each house visited will provide you with a wealth of information with which to make relative comparisons. Unless you open and shut a number of types of windows, you really will have very little on which to make a quality judgment. Here are a dozen things to do in the next ten houses you visit. 

1. Operate the heating and cooling systems. (Don't run air conditioning if the weather is colder than 60 degrees.) Get an idea how quickly the system responds, how evenly it seems to heat or cool, how forcefully air comes out of the registers, its relative temperature, etc. 

2. Open a few windows and doors. You will find a difference in the types of windows and how well they operate and fit. Look for cloudiness, indicating lost seals, between the glass layers of the double layered types. 

3. Open the faucets and flush the commodes. Get an idea what normal water volume and pressure is like and observe how quickly the commodes, tubs, and lavatories drain. Listen for noises in the piping systems or the hardware. 

4. Count the number of fuses and circuit breakers in the distribution panel and compare the number to the size of the house and the equipment within it. Newer homes have more circuits and a properly upgraded older one will too. 

5. Poke your head in the attic and see how thick the insulation on the floor is and try to figure out what type it is. 

6. Open the kitchen cabinet doors and drawers and get a feel for the differences in quality. Ask how old the appliances are in an effort to hone your appliance age guesstimating ability. 

7. Look closely at the roofing shingles and note the flatness, texture, shape, and coloring. Compare the various roofs you see and try to notice how these qualities change with age. Observe only the roofs of houses and try to guess the age of both the roofing and the house. See if you can spot which roofing systems have been replaced. 

8. Try to guess the age of the house when you pull up in front of it. You will soon begin to approximate the age of a house by its shape, window type, use of concrete for walks and driveways, variety of landscaping, and a host of other external clues. Try to confirm your guess by looking for a stamped date inside the toilet tank lid or on county building inspection stickers on the electrical distribution panel, or on date codes on the water heater, etc. 

9. Observe the roof for protruding plumbing pipes and then scan the windows on the walls and see if you can imagine the interior room layout. Start with the entrance door and the stairs. Then place the kitchen and the bathrooms (they are beneath those pipes poking through the roof) and figure out where and what type of fuel and heating equipment the house has from the chimney type and location. 

10. Look for stains around the edges of basements. Many basements will have stains, the tough part is trying to differentiate between stains indicating a lot of water seepage and those which indicate spillage from a washing machine or a backup from a basement entrance drain. Also be on the lookout for 1/2 inch mortar splotches every 18 inches or so along basement walls or in the floor slab near the basement walls. (This usually indicates that termite treatment has been performed.) Try to locate damaged wood to see if the treatment was prophylactic or prescriptive. Try to itemize how many different locations display insulation and then ask yourself why different houses vary so much in the placement of insulation. 

11. Check the floors for stiffness. Raise up on your toes and drop on your heels. Do this in the next 20 rooms you are in and note the differences. Try this in your existing home. 

12. Think of the house as one large object within which systems and appliances cycle out. What has been updated in the house you are looking at and when? 

If you do this, you will be amazed at how astute you become with the first ten houses. This exercise should prompt at least 100 new questions. Use these questions to qualify any home inspector you consider hiring. Ask what problems the home inspector expects to find in the house you are contemplating buying. An experienced home inspector usually knows just what to look for prior to entering the building. If you don't get specifics maybe this inspector isn't really experienced or isn't that anxious to help you. 

Get prepared for the inspection. Make the longest list of questions you can possibly think of. 
Include every future plan you can conceive of: 

Can this wall be moved? 
Would a beam be necessary? 
Should I expect to find plumbing, electrical, or duct work inside that wall? 
Would this kitchen be easy to expand? 
What would be the best location for a first floor powder room? 
How can I keep from getting ripped off by unscrupulous contractors. 
What does it cost? What does it cost? What does it cost? 
Can I do it myself? 
What do I have to know to do it myself? 
Would my skill level produce a satisfactory finished product? 
Can this carport be enclosed? 
Does the slab require a continuous footing? 
Can a deck be built here and what wood would be the most practical to use? 
What is the range of costs I might expect? 
Show me how to light the pilot light. 
Where do I lubricate the circulator? 
What should I expect from an oil burner maintenance contract? 

How To Treat the Home Inspector: 

What To Expect In Your Written FollowUp Report: 
The best inspection services will provide you with a customized home owners manual for the house. All significant systems and components will be itemized along with the appropriate level of maintenance, risk, warning and inspection limitation. Discovered problems will be categorized into major or minor groupings according to safety and repair/upgrade costs. Each problem should be completely described along with the generalized what to, and how to, or repair. 

The written report should put the house into perspective for you by comparing it to its peers. Along with the physical profile of the building, you should get a financial profile in that the repair costs of problems should be approximated along with a projected 5 year maintenance budget. 
Really good reports will indicate the likelihood of undiscovered major or minor problems along with an indication of the subjectivity of the inspectors' opinions. Quality reports usually include information your insurance agent will need to know to write a policy on the property.