The Ultimate Home Buyer's Guide

GET A HOME INSPECTION

Within the first few days after going into contract, you should get a home inspection done. This doesn't mean wait a week to decide. You need to line up a home inspector immediately. Home inspectors have schedules and appointments to follow too.

This needs to be done by a certified home inspector...not a buddy who happens to be handy or has bought a bunch of homes over the years.

If you know a certified inspector, feel free to hire him or her. If you don’t know who to call, we can provide a short list of inspectors whom we have worked with in the past and have provided good service. Just let us know.

In Hawaii, home inspectors are not licensed. Instead, most home inspectors hold a national certification. A Certification verifies that a professional has met a certain set of criteria for a skill or job as measured by a third-party assessment, usually a non-government body like a Trade Association. For Home Inspectors, there are 2 national trade associations offering Certifications: ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) and NACHI (National Association of Certified Home Inspectors). They provide Standards of Practice for conducting Home Inspections and a Code of Ethics.

Fair warning: Inspection reports often make a home sound like it should be bulldozed because it has so many problems. Things are rarely as bad as an inspection report makes it sound. So, when you read through yours, do not be alarmed.

We will give you some thoughts and guidance on what you should ask to be repaired—and what you might want to let slide—once we have the report back.

You should go after structural and operationally deficient items in most cases. (Of course, this depends on the deal we have negotiated, whether there were multiple offers if there are backup offers, etc.)

But the home inspection is not meant to be used to ask for every little thing, like a minor drip on the kitchen faucet or a squeaky door, for instance.