When you are buying or selling a home, cutting corners to save money can get you into trouble.
Buyers constantly think about every quarter of a percent they can save in their mortgage interest rate, but many give far little attention to whether the home they buy is about to fall down and who will carry the loss if it does.
Equally sellers sometimes want to save a dollar by “papering over the cracks” hoping that defects will go unnoticed. This is a dangerous strategy in times when court cases for misrepresentation are rapidly increasing.
When money is tight and you are struggling to keep within a budget, you may feel tempted to cut as many corners as you dare. This is a risky approach which could end up costing you a lot more than a modest investment in getting professional help right at the beginning.
For example, for around $500 you can get a building and pest inspection report by a licensed inspector. Always employ someone who knows what they are doing, is scrupulously independent and will produce a readable report that makes a realistic appraisal of the condition of the dwelling.
No home is entirely defect-free. We do not live in a perfect world. So really useful reports distinguish between the types of defects discovered in the inspection and rank them in order of significance. And the best inspector is the person who will set aside the time to write the report in a meaningful way and be available to deal with any queries that arise from the report.
As a buyer, you have these options:
- Accept the property “as is” and remedy the defects yourself after settlement.
- Negotiate a reduction of price – if you have the bargaining strength.
- Ask the seller to rectify the defects at their own expense and prior to settlement. For example, where the defective building work reported on is relatively new, the property owner might be able to get the defects rectified by the building contractors who did the original work.
For most people buying a home is the biggest single financial transaction they will ever undertake and the one most likely to contain legal complexities and the potential for things to go wrong.
A pre-purchase inspection report is no longer a dispensable luxury. It is something that every home buyer needs, if only for peace of mind.
And getting the right legal advice at the right time from your experienced conveyancer or solicitor might just turn out to be the best investment you ever made.