The worst final walk-through I did with a client was with a very picky person whose single motivation in life seemed to be to NOT be taken advantage of. While she was right in that the towel racks should have been left behind, her temper was a bit much for the situation.  Most final walk-throughs go very smoothly as buyers get one last chance to look at a home to make sure the condition is still good prior to closing.

Inspecting the condition is just one reason to do a final walk-through, but there are other reasons according to Kim Daughterty of McKinney, Texas!  Here is what a walk-through is not.

• a chance to go back and ask for more repairs to be made (assuming no further damage has been done since the inspection)
• an opportunity to negotiate on any previously negotiated item (price, closing date, etc)
• a time to decide you really don’t like the _________ (paint colors, floor plan, wallpaper, etc) and back out.

But DO go on your walk-through so there are no surprises after closing!

I have been extremely lucky in my life to never have experienced bedbugs (knock on wood!) through multiple moves and living in eight different states.  I could not imagine the horror that bedbugs would bring.

Sarah Rae of Apartment Therapy shares her experiences,

The lack of sleep is starting to get to me. The idea of using your body as bait at night to lure out any remaining live bugs is enough to give anyone the heebie jeebies. You become this giant flesh buffet. Even if they don’t cross the poison line left by the exterminators, leaving yourself out for exposure makes you feel awkward and ridiculously exposed (even if you’re wearing long underwear to bed to cover as much skin as possible).

I hope she find relief from the evil pests quickly. And if you google “bed bugs” and look at the images, be prepared to have nightmares.

Photo from how to kill bedbugs.

The house was once cracked in half, but the seller had it professionally repaired. The chimney is leaning.  The electrical system is ancient.  The house adjoins land that is swampy.  Whatever is wrong with a house, it’s always best to disclose.  Disclosure is invaluable both for a seller and a buyer

The seller prevents potential litigation in the future if there is a problem about the house that they told the buyer about prior to the purchase.  The buyer also knows what they’re getting into.

Are there exceptions?  Perhaps the only one I’ve seen is when property is bank-owned and they make the buyer sign a gazillion times that they are accepting the home in as-is condition, no exceptions.  In these cases, buyers are strongly advised to have an experienced professional do a careful inspection.  Spend the money to get an A/C inspection, a roof inspection, and any other component vital to the operation and functioning of the home checked out.

While it seems a rarity, there are many parts of the country where well water is a necessity.  No public water supply is a very real concern for many households.   If you’re buying property where the H2O is provided by a well, it’s important to get that water tested.

Want proof?  Take a look at this result of natural gas hydraulic fracturing presented by Think Progress Green,

…the Wall Street Journal reports that drillers using the fracking process are ruining people’s wells. “In May, Pennsylvania regulators fined Chesapeake Energy Corp. $900,000 for contaminating the water supplies of 16 homes in Bradford County, Pa., with methane, including the water well at the Vargson home.”

And the photo of flammable water that is the result:

Get your well water tested!

We had a sparrow build a nest in our gas grill this spring. That mama bird didn’t get too protective, but we still respected her space.  Home inspector Jay Markanich of Bristow, Virginia had a little different experience with a mama bird,

As I was walking off the front porch, the mother came out and, fairly viciously, attacked me.  I have never been treated like that before on a home inspection.

Screaming, she got in my face.  All I wanted to do was my home inspection.  She was relentless!

Surely I wasn’t impolite and I didn’t yell back.

All I did was duck my head and continue to walk toward the side of the house.  Was that impolite?

Ha! What a cute little experience the home inspector had!  I hope the new owners will let the birds continue to nest there in the future.

One spring my Mom and Dad were shocked when they walked into their living room because a SWARM of termites came spewing out of one of their walls.  It was a horrifying specter and one I always brace myself for every spring… praying that it doesn’t happen at my house.

When a buyer picks a house, one of the most important things to do is get an inspection by qualified professionals.  That was plural.  INSPECTORS.  A home inspection, a roof inspection, heat/air inspection, and a termite inspection (aka wood-destroying organism inspection).

Jay Markanich of Bristow, Virginia explains why,

Under these two doors was a conveniently unfinished storage room.

The rim joist under the doors was easily accessible.

It was not hard to pull away the paltry insulation on the rim joists (it’s never enough) and look around.

I found what I feared I might find when I saw it outside.

Rotting wood and termites!  BEASTS!

And they had been there for a while!

They are beasts.  Ghastly, horrible beasts!

It is rare that I get to preach from both sides of an aisle, however, today I’m stepping up to do just that.  I read a post earlier on Active Rain that is private (for members only) so I can’t link back to it.  However, home inspector Reuben Saltzman said,

I received a call from a home buyer yesterday … where the seller said they wouldn’t fix the furnace venting because it met the city’s code.  Sorry, wrong, no.  If the city approved the installation, it means they didn’t catch any problems with the installation.  It doesn’t mean the installation was done right, or even that it meets code.

The inspector from Maple Grove, Minnesota was not being critical of code inspectors but rather defending their work as an inspector.

The other side of the aisle, now.  I work for a city and know the codes inspector.  He takes his work very seriously.  While he wants builders to pass inspections, he has no compunction about saying “NO” when things are not done properly.

In the end, the home inspector and the city codes inspector really are on the same side.  They are there to protect the homeowner or resident of the homes so they can live there safely and with everything build properly.

We really are fortunate that we have this kind of consumer protection in place.