@ericbomb Don’t get one now to make up for what you skipped back then, get one now as a checkup for what you might need to fix and for what you need to keep an eye on.
this post was submitted on 18 May 2024
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Great answer. You want to keep on that home maintenance and not let it get too bad. Reconstruction is crazy expensive.
And don’t be surprised at the prices on actual fixes not just shitty band-aids. They’re crazy expensive.
Ex. My home builder didn’t put a sump pump in our new build (and honestly, they should’ve forced us to have a few) and we didn’t know this would be an issue. In the monsoon season we got flooding, yay. A permanent fix with a lifetime warranty of 3 sumps was $25K. If we had put it in during building it would’ve been a few thousand. Peace of mind is typically gonna cost you.
If you have a basement I’d recommend they check the foundation. Have a plumber check your system (PRV, expansion tank, water heater, valves, toilets, drain lines). If it’s an older house have them check the electrical panel and wiring. They don’t last forever and can cause fires. How is the roof doing? HVAC system? Etc. Find an inspector that can do a thorough inspection because they’re are some lazy ones out there or people who just don’t know what to really look for. Ideally you contact each trade to give you an in depth diagnosis.
I'm not trying to give you shit here OP, you did what you did 4 years ago and you're thinking of doing something about it now so it's all good, but:
this is so astronomically expensive every penny saved is good…”
This is so astronomically expensive that I can't imagine caring about 300 bucks to see if anything is horrifically wrong with it. Seriously folks, get an inspection if you're buying a house! This would be like, I dunno, taking a job without talking to a single person who works there, except at least with the job you can quit without wasting thousands of dollars! The inspection could save your life!
I might have cancer but it's so expensive to actually find out. I'd rather just ride it out and wait until the damage becomes irreversible...
Get the inspection!!
That's actually my strategy.
I can only provide anecdotal experience, but my old girl found her dream house. Old mining cottage type terraced house, immaculate renovation inside, great hillside views, nice enough place overall...
...she instructed her surveyor to have a look and he told her to run like fuck, the shared wall was pretty much the only thing keeping the house upright - his words were clearly a reduction of some larger issues, but that saved a repair and insurance nightmare.
They're pricey, yes - but they can save you an exponentially larger amount of money.
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Hey man I didn't say it was smart!
And it was one of those things where it's like I had X amount of money, and afterwards I was going to have not much money at all. So spending $300 more of that tiny remaining money was uncomfortable.
The costs of home maintenance are pretty crazy if you aren't prepared. The cost of an inspection is basically nothing compared to furnace, a/c, roof, windows, siding, flooring, or structural repair. Most appliances cost the same or more than an inspection as well.
Uhhhhhh. You paid for a house without getting it inspected? I'm shocked you were able to get homeowners insurance without one.
The entire point of getting an inspection done is to save yourself money. Find someone local who's thorough and have them go over the house and look for any issues, it'll be cheaper to fix them now rather than after something fails and there's major damage.
The housing market was silly for awhile. Lots of homes basically had a clause of "If inspection done, no sale"
Yeah, that's a trap. We signed a letter of intent on one place and had an inspector run through it before we committed to an offer - it's fortunate that we did too, there was serious water damage to the house that the owners were trying not to disclose.
The shit thing about the market for a couple of years is that properties were marked up by 40-50% over about 5y and many of them had next to no work done, or they got the Lowe's sale flipper special and looked terrible after.
I was looking during that rush, and did my own inspections. Every single place, I asked questions that resulted in a “NEXT!” from the seller. Never even got to the point where I’d have called in an outside party. Looked at around 30 houses.
Ended up buying a new build instead; still had things the inspectors missed, but nothing huge.
Depends on where you live.
The bank will often send an inspector for a loan, but it's literally him just walking around and validating there is a house and it's not in shambles. He'll look at things like the roof from the outside and when it was redone, but isn't going to hop into your crawlspace to look for signs of water damage.
Then you have the "private" inspection company that you can pay to check your home for yourself. These companies are know to cost a lot of money, often detailing things they can't be sure are "risks". They'll go in the crawlspace and note all sorts of things.
On my house the expensive private inspection said "the roof here is kinda saggin and there's a bump there, it could be anything". In the same report he accidentally shows a picture from under the roof where you can see there was a repair and some extra framing, causing the small "bump" that is purely aesthetic. Didn't mention that part.
Getting someone to look at it post purchase is likely going to be much cheaper, and I'm definitely not recommending people don't get inspections when buying houses if they don't know what they're doing.
For my first house, the bank's inspector literally stopped his van in the middle of the road, took some pictures with his cell phone through the driver's window, and drove off. He never even left his vehicle.
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When you buy a used car through a private party, you have a mechanic check it over for two reasons:
- You want to make sure you aren't overpaying (because repairs are needed)
- You want to make sure it's safe and doesn't need immediate maintenance
It's the same for a house. The first one is moot: you already bought it and can't go back. But the second one still applies - it would be good to get it looked over.
We did an inspection before we bought.
They found a gas leak in the attic.
They also found that while radon mitigation equipment was installed, it was never connected to power.
The roof was 20 years old and only had a 20 year lifespan. No leaks... but... yeah.
As I understand it, about 20 years ago, my [US] state started requiring all new basement work (including additions) to have radon piping provisions, but they didn't have to be connected.
that realtor did you dirty. "I looked around and it was fine"?? please don't use them ever again. that's sketchy and dishonest. no reputable realtor without something to hide would say that. I would report them to the state realtor board.
get the inspection. and when it's time to sell, get another one.
I mean 30 year old me recognizes that was a super weird thing to say.
25 year old me felt super over his head anyway.
But I'm getting an inspector! Don't you fret!
It's not crazy. You should get one every so often just in case. Better to find a small problem now than a big problem later.
I'm more shocked that you could buy the house without an inspection. My bank required one to give me a loan.
Lol yeah surprised inspection wasn't required.
"Realtor said it's cool" would be a red flag to most financial institutions and buyers. Like, now I'm suspicious as hell that OP got sold a lemon and just hadn't realized it yet.
Well even the land itself is worth more than I paid, and 5 years of no problems is a great start. But will find a good inspector and see if I really did get that lucky!
Is the land actually worth more than the property or were you just told that? Because if that was actually true then the sensible thing would have been for a developer to have bought the property to demolish it.
If a property is on expensive land then the value of the property goes up. So I would be highly suspicious of that claim.
The land it's on is "currently" more expensive than what I paid for it 5 years ago. Just recently got an appraisal done.
If I tried to buy this house now with my income the bank would laugh at me.
Sorry to anyone who didn't buy a house pre - covid :(
Totally. Our house is worth almost double what we paid for it before the pandemic. And during one of the lockdowns, we refinanced to a 15-year mortgage at the same monthly payment as our 30-year had been. All of which means that if we were trying to buy this year, we'd be paying four times as much over the span of the loan.
Golden handcuffs, though. We can't move for the next ten years now. Thankfully we don't want to.
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Get it inspected. It's better and cheaper to fix any issues sooner rather than later.
Always make the sale contingent on an inspection (and also on the sale of your current house,)
A full inspection covers all sorts of things, many of which are regulated and mandated in specific locations. Here’s a basic article on it
It’s not weird to get one if you haven’t before, and it’s a good idea. They can also point out code violations (and I’m not sure how expensive that can get… they may mandate you fix it. It may just be a reconditioned you fix it.)(and if you ever need to get a permit, the mandatory inspection that frequently happens with that is a bad time to find out.)
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when I heard people were buying without inspections during the property rush I was agog and I hadn't bought a house.
I just bought a house and the inspection was very useful as a first time buyer.
Some electrics needed upgrading, the attic insulation had worn thin, there was evidence of old squirrel nests up there too, the crawlspace needed a vapor barrier, some tree branches were close to a power line... nothing major but all stuff that needed fixing.
We came to a compromise with the sellers that we'd split the cost of everything that came back in the report 50/50.
It certainly gives peace of mind to know there's no sword of damocles waiting to fall
when I heard people were buying without inspections during the property rush I was agog and I hadn't bought a house.
Reminds me of all the people buying homes to flip on their Starbucks income with variable rate mortgages back in 2006/2007
Get it inspected. And next time you buy a house, try to get the seller to pay for the inspection as part of closing. They probably will.
I bought during the height of the housing frenzy in Canada in 2021. Putting any condition on the sale meant that you wouldn't get the house. I found a few issues but took the chance anyways. As soon as the sale went through, I got an inspector in to check out everything I found. I got lucky for the most part, but there were a few things that he found that I didn't. It's better to know these things and plan for them than to be oblivious.
Get the inspection. It's not weird at all. They are all aware of the current situation.
our inspection saved us money. they found a crack in the outdoor tiling sealant that was retaining water. we spent $200 on their services, but their report helped us regotiate $5000 off our initial offer, which we had repaired for ~$500. for anybody tossing it up, it's a no-brainer.
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How did you buy a house at the age of 25? I can't get past this.
The simple, but annoying answer, was luck and fear.
I grew up in poverty on account of my father going to prison very young and my unprepared mom having to somehow take care of 3 kids and realizing he had made lots of money vanish and stolen lots of the money we did have that needed to be returned, and instead of inheriting money irresponsibly, I got a crippling fear of debt and spending money on non necessities.
But at the same time I was making around 70k a year at 25, because at 20 I got my associates in IT, then found a job paying above what I was asking for in under a month after graduating, and I still work at that job 10 years later as they've been very reasonable through everything. Getting that job SOO fast that worked out so well was just pure luck.
Also I couldn't buy the house I'm in anymore, buying at 25 instead of 26 was pure luck. If I had been born a year later, buying at 25 wouldn't have worked. The price of the house went up about 100k a few months later.
Also even in 2019, my home was considered a fantastic deal. A 2k square foot town home for 240k in a medium sized city (the one I grew up in), within walking distance of main street. It has an hoa, but it only has 9 other town homes in it, and we have a massive shared common area and pool. Having a pool I only have to share with a dozen other people is a luxury I never imagined. Hoa fee is 200$ and they've only ever asked me to pull weeds around my house when a neighbor was selling theirs and they wanted it to look pretty to help out a neighbor.
So I actually don't have a car (too expensive) and I can walk/bike to grocery stores, doctors appointments, the like. To top it off it's only about 3 miles from where my mom lives, and we just recently moved my grandma into a senior living center about a mile away so she's close to me and my mom.
So, yeah. I just saved every penny to a stupid level, then got rather lucky. Saving every penny at my income wouldn't have worked without the luck. Never being unemployed in my entire life was pure luck. Finding a home that met all my needs perfectly within my budget was crazy.
The cheapest home in this city are 200k 900 square feet town homes, but because of the interest rates the monthly payments are 50% higher than my beloved home.
But all that luck wouldn't have meant a thing if I hadn't saved like crazy. Sooo... yeah. For context, after much cajoling from counseling I have agreed to allow myself 100$ fun budget per month, and $400 a month for food so I buy more "nice" food. My only debts are a little bit of my college loans (I paid off all the high interest ones and the only ones left are like 3%. I had a tradition where every tax return I just put the entire thing towards the highest interest student loan) and my mortgage which is at 4.25%. I'm going to retire a millionaire and with a fully paid off home.
But it's so sad, because people taking the EXACT same actions as me, but 2 years younger, won't. They'll have to rent their entire life, or buy a home out in the middle of nowhere away from family and services. Which means they'll most likely need a car and have to pay other premiums.
Thanks for the details. I appreciate it. I wish you continued luck and success :)
Thank you! I wish I could give advice that was relevant to the current time . If I was 24 and didn't own a home I'd probably be having to do math on buying a 100k home in a super cheap area in a different state. But that would come with other hidden costs like having to own a car, not having access to good medical care, possibly higher crime rate, if I didn't have a WFH job then finding a job will most likely be a pay cut and if I lost my WFH job I'd have to most likely take a lower paying job, then of course if I wanted to see my family ever I'd have to budget in that....
Ugh. IDK man, I feel awful for people just 5 years younger than me.
Work remote from rural areas. Or just find a reasonable paying job in those areas. I see nice places in the 200k's in towns under 5000 near me.
Sure, I can see that but I cannot imagine living in such a small town. I've only lived in cities in 2 countries, and top 5 largest ones at that. To live in a small town for me just sounds miserable. At the same time, living in cities there is convince so long as you can afford it. Home ownership is almost impossible for millennials like myself and now cars are getting up there.
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Pest inspection at the least. You want to know if you have dry rot or termites.
Indeed. My current house is great thanks to an inspection. My wiring was incredibly old, and so are my pipes. We had to replace the wiring, legally, as the house couldn't be insured, it was a fire risk, but I'd rather know that than die in a fire.
And if I didn't use a good inspector I would've ended up at a different house that looked amazing, but had incredibly expensive termite damage hidden behind insulation that the owners shoved in the foundation to cover up the damage.
Who convinced you? The owner? F that, always always ALWAYS get an independent inspection.
My realtor :(
I was 25 and very overwhelmed by it all.
I love my house, it seems perfect still several years later and I've only had to do some minor repairs.
But I'll get one to make sure no dangers are lurking where me and my handy man can't see!
We got an inspection on both ends, when we purchased (was required by the lender) and an appraisal, too. A pre-sale inspection should indicate to you if you have any lurking problems that will come up during sale if you don’t know about them and could jeopardize a deal.
If nothing is wrong, it’ll be good for the peace of mind, if something is wrong, it’s good to be aware of it beforehand and have a chance at fixing it, rather than being in the middle of something broken down and causing additional problems. Houses are complicated systems and the more aware you are of their problems, the better chance you have of fixing it before it becomes worse.
Be sure you get the inspector to state which things they believe must be 5 years or older and share the report on the Realtors Facebook page.
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