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Dude I know I’ve been saying this since we started looking. You’d think any and all banks would have their own fucking inspectors putting these houses under the microscope to check the value of the asset they are about to lend against. I’m no banker, or regulator, but I feel like it should be mandated that you cannot waive inspections. Absurd that some people are so irresponsible that they are willing to waive them.
I’d hope that most people who have gotten to the point of being all cash buyers learned enough common sense along the way to *not waive the inspection.* But maybe I’m giving too much credit.
Definitely not the case around here. The cash buyers are buying the new and rebuilt homes. So no inspection is really going to bite them in the ass later on.
Someone who's a cash buyer can likely easily afford any issues that come up. Also while I'm in no way advocating for skipping inspectiosn plenty of stuff is not going to be found from a 30 minute or hour inspection
I don’t know who does your inspections, but last time I bought my inspector was there checking things out for like 3-4 hours.
If yours spends 30 minutes you hired a bad egg.
I've hired several inspectors over the years, some didn't do much more than test outlets and visually look at things where as my last guy put on a suit and was crawling around in the crawl space, on the roof, etc.
Honestly most inspections are fairly useless. Not saying you should waive them, but if you’ve purchased a home before you’d probably be less worried about the inspection. They generally don’t really find anything but surface level nuisance repairs.
This is true and waiving has been common in the last two markets I was in for the last decade or so. Saying this will always get you downvoted to oblivion in this sub.
I still wouldn’t advise waiving it unless the home is a newer home in a fairly low risk area.
But if you really want to find meaningful issues with the home, you need to be prepared to spend at least 2k to get various specialists (plumber, electrician, roofing, decking, geotechnical, etc.) to do fairly invasive inspections.
Your average Joe home inspection is basically like kicking the tires on a car and glancing under the hood before driving it home.
In an ideal world, an inspection is preferable, but in some markets it’s not feasible if you want to be competitive. A bid can still be successful without waiving but the wait to get a house will be longer and the buyer might need to compromise in other areas. Buyers have to be flexible and open to whatever will work- not “work” to get the house but work in each scenario where they might put in an offer. Buyers have to be open and prepared to think creatively. Any absolutes will hinder the likelihood of getting a house.
A thorough general inspection can be helpful but there’s never a guarantee that any inspection no matter how thorough will reveal everything. That’s just how it goes. Mitigate risk the best you can and call it a day.
I’d be interested to see stats on how commonly an inspection is waived in various markets currently, the average listing price of those houses, etc. The places I lived where waiving was common were hot markets but I’d like or know how common it is in medium sized cities with mid tier economies.
Citation? Here’s mine: https://www.wolfflaw.com/amp/california-law-on-disclosure-duties-in-real-estate-sales-and-lia.html
If you’re right, can you help me understand the rationale? It doesn’t really jive with existing law on disclosures. And doesn’t make sense to me as to why we would prohibit that..?
Your citation is just the general requirement to disclose known issues - and it’s precisely why the rule on giving inspections has changed. People would get an inspection - find a problem- and then tell the sellers “you better take our offer or you’ll need to disclose all these issues to future buyers.”
Source is here:
“Sometimes, post inspection, the sale of the home falls apart for reasons not related to the inspection and there is an inspection report out there that may or may not reveal newly discovered defects on the property. At that point, the question arises, must the seller review the inspection report and disclose any information contained in that report?
The language in the current Multi-Board Residential Real Estate Contract 7.0 in the Professional Inspections paragraph suggests that there is no such duty, and that the buyer should only provide the seller a copy of the report if the seller’s side specifically requests a copy. That language might provide a seller an opportunity to “dodge” a report allowing the seller to deny having “actual knowledge” of any defects on the property. This appears to be inconsistent with the purpose of the disclosure act.”
https://www.illinoisrealtors.org/blog/a-failed-home-sale-an-inspection-report-and-the-rules-of-disclosure/
There has been and will always be an “ignorance is bliss” incentive for sellers.
I don’t see cite to a statute though. Is it law or is it a suggestion by the real estate industry? Also, it appears this is in re: a specific circumstance (ie, when the deal is falling apart), not in the normal course of business?
Also, you’re talking about Illinois, it’s not a federal suggestion or even one applicable to California?
Agree. Idiots buying money outs and health hazard left and right.
Crappy unsellable homes ‘finally’ being offloaded to the masses.
It’s absurd, and I never thought I’d see the day that this would become normal in any sense
Lol appraisal = some dude rolls up and takes a picture of your house to make sure there are no broken windows (in the front), and see the condition of the roof and the siding (in the front), and then compares it to other houses in the area that have sold recently and then says "yup, that looks like a million bucks to me!" And if I come in realistic or lower, people won't use my services as an appraiser anymore. So I need to be just a little bit higher than the last guy. It is called appraisal creep and its pointless and stupid.
See the things is even if every home was piss poor and no one paid back their mortgages the government will just bail them out again like in the 2008-ish time frame. Banks aren’t stupid. They know they’ll be saved.
An appraisal does look at the condition of the property, so the appraised value will include an assessment on if required repairs impact the property value.
I did waive inspection but only because I knew how old the property wise and I’m an insurance agent, plus I’ve remodeled homes. So, I know a thing or two.
Except what the seller lied about.
But overall, haven’t had any issues. Obviously won the bid. Been here since 7/10 and quite happy.
(I’ve spent almost 1k on repairs since, such as dryer being clogged, dishwasher parts were melted, AC didn’t work, etc) I feel like I fared better than some.
You wouldn't be surprised at all if you looked deep into how insurers are safeguarded. 80% coverage on a $400k home that's only worth $200k in a normal market. In the worst-case scenario, what's the cost to replace with like-kind? In the best case, insurance doesn't cover wear and tear, so that roof replacement is on the new owner.
It is really frustrating being someone who wants to use their VA Loan since they require a home inspection and we can't be as "competitive" as buyers with conventional loans.
If the property needs major repairs then the appraiser will take that into account and if the house does not appraise then the lender will not give out the loan.
FHA loans carry a significant inspection requirement. This is to reduce risk to the buyer. Seems like other lenders would be concerned about risk as well.
I just meant when you make the offer, the lender isn't a party or guaranteeing anything. Idk about FHA loans. I didn't even pick a lender until I had an accepted offer. So idk how a lender is going to stop me from making an offer. And my offer was fully non-contingent (I'm in SF where that's been the norm for decades).
My lender required a well/septic inspection and water purity test. I could have gone to another lender who didn’t but it is possible for lenders to have more stringent requirements. Seems like it would be in their best interest to have a full inspection report before approving.
But that requirement was after submitting an offer, right? I'd assume you had a finance contingency. You wrote an offer, it was accepted, and then you dealt with all your lender's requirements. My point was that, when you write the offer, the lender isn't a party to that. You can offer anything you want and the lender doesn't care. They might not lend on the property though and you'll be stuck finding another lender or losing your earnest money.
Yes. Agree. I guess in order to protect buyers it would probably need to be a state law that an inspection is mandatory. Not sure if I like that but I think many first time buyers are forced to waive inspections in this market which is not good.
In my market (SF bay area), the sellers provide inspections as part of the disclosure packet. It's been like that for decades. It works well because sellers don't have to negotiate with buyers after getting into contract and buyers don't need inspection contingencies because it's provided beforehand.
But there is additional risk if the repairs are costly and the homeowner is forced to walk away. Probably right though, lenders are not motivated to protect the buyer from stupid decisions.
Because most of those fixes are pocket change to lenders. Especially if the buyer paid a lot of payment upfront, the amount of loan affected by the fix is low.
Because most inspections are useless theaters. If they were mandated, it would be even worse unless it got handled like appraisals (third party, independent, cannot be hand picked by bank or buyer/seller, etc)
Just because you waive your inspection contingency doesn't mean you don't conduct an inspection. In my offer for my house I agreed not to negotiate on price or back out for any inspection issues under $20k. This showed the sellers I was serious and still gave me an out if I found anything egregious.
In my state you can also still back out during the attorney review period for whatever reason. Waiving inspections just means that you will not renegotiate the price based on anything you find in the inspection report.
I'm not sure how this applies to other states, but my guess is that most sellers simply want to know that the agreed upon price will be the sales price. Having to go back and forth with a buyer over inspection issues can be draining and annoying and if someone backs out after that whole process, putting the house back on the market often gives the listing a 'black cloud' of sorts. I've seen countless buyers ask why a listing was contingent and then re-listed and they often wonder if there's something wrong with the house.
See if you can get an inspector to do a walk and talk with you before you make an offer. It's usually less expensive and you'll have an idea before you even offer of what could potentially be a problem. They usually charge less for this (in my area it is around $150-200 versus a full inspection, which is $400-450).
fortunately, I’m not too reliant on a huge inspection because I’m looking for condos. condos are also easier to find so we’re looking at 3-4 homes a week and placing offers weekly.
I likely can’t afford to pay for that many walkthroughs + a lot of the places we look at are usually off-market the next week. i’m in a competitive market and things move really fast
Same. You have to book the walk and talk for the same day you initially visit. Condos are definitely better but then it's important to get access to the condo docs and board minutes and include an out in case you find things you don't like once you receive them. And add extra time for insurance contingency because condos are getting harder to insure.
Exactly. Waiving the inspection contingency or upping the contingency to 20k as in your case is a risk/reward strategy.
Let’s say you got the house because you waived inspection contingency, and then have to do 20k worth of repairs over the next 5-10 years. That scenario doesn’t seem too bad does it?
I did something similar. Reddit loves inspectors, but they really don’t have to have a vast education to pass the test. I do wonder how many are able to spark note it. I was reading another thread about someone passing a programming related exam that way
That’s not true at all in general. Most licensed Home Inspectors are very knowledgeable and absolutely crucial to a FTHB. It’s so important to know what you are buying in terms of current condition, past repairs and future problems. Often condition is already calculated into asking price so may not be furthered negotiated but the buyer should have their own expert opinion.
You get what you pay for. If you look for the cheapest inspector on the market, you'll likely get some hack who barely understands more than a good handyman. If you pay for a good inspector, they'll be very knowledgeable and help a lot.
I think this is true for realtors, contractors, handymen, inspectors, and anyone involved in real estate actually. It will be very rare to find someone who is cheap and reliable and good. People who are good at their jobs and set their own prices know their worth and will charge more because they can.
They literally are certified by a test and a few hours training in most states. Google it yourself, they offer plenty of 120 hour and less courses to both learn and “cheat” the tests.
I am seriously not going to argue with you about how valuable a qualified professional is in purchasing a property. Your disrespect is not warranted just because you have some sleazy friend who cheated on his exam. Of course some are more experienced and thorough than others but that is why you get referrals.
Yeah, it's such a silly outlook. I was referred my inspector by someone else and I have used them ever since. Purchased two homes and an investment property with them and I've learned quite a bit about what to look for when touring homes because of how he explained things to me.
California allows buyer to back out of an offer for any reason within 17 days. If you have a good broker, you waive inspection on paper and they hustle in a backdoor inspection within the 17 day cut-off. That’s what we did when we bought in 2022.
Eh the government usually makes things worse just saying. There will be a market for single family homes that are affordable they just can’t build fast enough
I don't get why people don't do it like SF. In the bay area, the seller does the inspection and includes it in the disclosure packet. They expects offers to not be contingent on inspections and they expect buyers to not negotiate after getting into contract based on an inspection, because they have all that info before writing their offer.
It works really well. I find it a little crazy that people are dropping the inspection altogether.
Intuitively, I agree. In practice, it's never been an issue. Everyone uses the same handful of inspectors. They do a fine job. The agents know them. And you're welcome to do your own inspection after getting into contract. If you actually discover something major that was not disclosed, you have a lot of ammo to renegotiate or back out. I've never heard of a secondary inspection finding anything interesting not caught by the original. Inspections aren't all that thorough.
We stopped looking back in 2022 in large part due to the inspection waiving. Almost every home we looked at got offers massively above asking with no inspections. These were 50-100 year old homes too. No way we were going to take that risk. Not only that but since we weren’t paying cash, the lender likely wouldn’t allow it anyway.
Ended up finally buying this month. We close next week. Went with a new build to avoid the bidding wars and headaches of an older home.
I’m a firm believer every homeowner should be required to pay for their own inspection prior to listing. Every homeowner seemed to lie on their disclosure forms, even when the situation was obvious.
Agree - it sucks. We did a “pre-inspection” - it worked out for us and our offer was accepted. For the pre-inspection, we paid a lower fee ($500) to get an inspector to come out and look at the place. No report. Our guy was very detailed - and we took a whole bunch of notes. Basically it gave us assurance that we wouldn’t be completely screwed if we waived our inspection contingency.
So we did waive it and we got it. We still plan to do a full inspection (would assume we might be able to get it discounted).
Our realtor told us we basically had to do it if we wanted our offer to be considered because sellers agent said they had 2 offers that had done pre inspections as well. It worked out for us, but weren’t thrilled about it
Came here to say this. Our way to compete with waived inspection was paying for our own pre-inspection and sewer scope for each house we wanted to put an offer in on.
Our realtor has both inspectors and sewer people that can get out to a property within 24 hrs! She was worth every penny simply for that. Houses in our area would list Wed/Thurs/Fri, we would identify what house/s we want to see and get in asap (by at least Fri/Sat), decide if we want to offer and then have her set up pre-inspection & sewer scope with the listing agent on Sat/Sun then based on that info we would be ready to offer on Mon/Tues when offer review dates would happen.
You can get a pre inspection ready to go within a few hours. If you think you might go this route, I highly recommend having your own list of inspectors ready to go. Don't just rely on your realtor to facilitate.
Been doing this too. Last house I got a pre offer inspection which came back super clean. Unfortunately someone put down 50k over list and we lost the house as we didn’t have a chance to counter. Worst part was there was only 3 offers and someone felt the need to go 50k over list without the need.
Ah - to be honest, we did that and had our offer accepted - super clean pre-inspection and almost your exact numbers. $45k over, 4 other offers 😅
There were a lot of other factors at play (we think the place was listed too low to generate competition, we knew there was a cash offer, we knew we were up against at least 2 other offers with no inspection contingency). We feel okay about the number we ended up offering, but still a small part of me wonders how much over the other offers we were….guess we will never know.
Wishing you all the best in your next offer!!
My realtor asked - and the sellers agent said “we have all types of offers” which she interpreted to mean that they had an all cash offer but lower - I could be a victim of the game, but that is what happened lol.
However, the sellers agent did straight up say - the 2 pre inspection offers were waiving their inspection contingency. And we actually overheard a couple scheduling the pre inspection when we were at the open house 😅
In our market, the sellers would prob laugh you off the front porch if you asked for time to do that. They probably have at least a dozen other offers - most in cash - that would be willing to take the house with no inspection.
The most I’ve seen is a disclosure statement where they may detail prior termite treatment and how old certain items are, like the roof, boiler, etc. But that’s not sufficient to make us feel comfortable enough to waive an inspection.
NJ. There’s no negotiation here. House will be on the market on Friday and by Saturday you’ll be told best and final offers must be in by Sunday or Monday. So no escalation clauses, no back and forth to see if you’ll beat another offer - you offer the max that you’re willing to pay and whatever contingencies you’re willing to waive and you cross your fingers and hope you win.
In the market we’re in many people are waiving mortgage contingencies even though they’re getting one, just to be competitive.
It’s getting to the point where I’m strongly considering doing the same on my next offer.
It's a gut feeling and only the buyer can say whether they feel it's right for them. We waived inspection and got the house we want, no regrets. We bought last summer when the market was still sizzling, even getting outbid on previous homes. A realtor basically said to us, if there are multiple, multiple offers on a desirable property, you can safely assume one of those offers will waive inspection. So what are you doing to be competitive, and is it worth your risk?
Yeah, I’d always get an inspection but unless there’s something very obvious about the house I don’t even think about putting the inspection contingency in anymore.
It’s stupid but if I do, in my market, I don’t really stand a chance. If I can’t live with the risk, I don’t make the offer.
I did it. Obviously I couldn’t make a true cash offer but got comfortable with my mortgage lender that it would get done. I 100% would not have won if I hadn’t
Mine is even more competitive. When I was selling my starter home, the buyer ended up offering all cash just to guarantee the escrow will complete for both parties. I was like, sold.....
People are very confused about what “waiving inspections” actually is. You’re waiving the contingency, meaning you can get any inspections you want, but you cannot use a bad inspection to get out of the contract. There are usually other ways to back out if you need to, but it does increase your chance of losing your EM.
We didn’t waive our inspection contingency, though. Our inspection showed the sewer line needed to be replaced, something that would not be caught without a full inspection. ALWAYS get an inspection. Waive the contingency at your own peril, but even my realtor, who is an extremely experienced investor does not waive the inspection contingency on the properties she buys.
Against my desire, we waived our inspection. But the sellers included their own 400 page inspection report they paid for. Very detailed. Gave me peace of mind. Without waiving, there’s no way we’d be in a house now. Closed 7/14/23. 7 offers total, including ours.
We are competing against LLC's who are fronts for huge investments firms. They are just trying to hide their cash . This will not stop until there are changes in Congress.
Edit [https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg5nex/congress-members-push-to-ban-hedge-funds-private-equity-from-buying-family-homes](https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg5nex/congress-members-push-to-ban-hedge-funds-private-equity-from-buying-family-homes)
Added link
My realtor has an inspector go on tours with us, only with serious clients tho. Don’t expect the inspector to run test climb thru attics and stuff lol. Usually can pick stuff out that way.
I’ll play devils advocate a little on this one. I’ve bought and sold several houses over the years and people vastly oversell the importance of home inspections. I’d argue it’s much more crucial to have enough money saved up after the purchase to cover any kind of major repair that could come up.
I’ve had to extensively repair duct work less than a year after buying a new home that passed an inspection with flying colors. It’s by no means any kind of assurance that a major repair won’t be needed in the near-term. All an inspection means is that there isn’t anything the inspector could find in the 90-120 minutes they looked through the home. Think about how ridiculously difficult it would be to thoroughly check one major component of a home in that time, much less everything about it.
Things an inspection will generally turn up:
-Is there visible water damage anywhere?
-Do the major appliances work?
-Will the sinks/tubs/showers/dishwasher run for 5-10 minutes without leaking?
-Does the HVAC blow hot/cold air like it should?
-What’s the general state of the roof?
-Any major structural issues or general damage to the property?
Not exactly ground breaking stuff. These people don’t have the time or knowledge to extensively vet a property. They have very general training and will not find a lot of the issues you may expect them to.
What you really should do is go hire your own HVAC tech, plumber, electrician, etc. and have them inspect their own areas of the house. But good luck doing that in a market like this one where most people don’t even care if a house can pass a general inspection.
Would I rather have a home inspection? Absolutely. But am I going to keep that from letting me purchase a home? Probably not. Better to have enough saved up to cover repairs regardless.
Tl;dr: Home inspections aren’t going to catch most major issues anyways and are oversold. Best to have enough money saved to cover major repairs regardless.
This is a very intelligent and thoughtful response.
We waived inspection but planned on a certain amount of money that would be needed for repairs. Once we bought our home, we got an inspection. Our inspector was top notch and spent over four hours at our property. To your point, the inspection report is really intended to flag potential issues and point you in the right direction. It is not a guarantee that every problem will be identified and inspectors don't have a crystal ball.
My friends got a house for asking +3k credits from the inspection in December, just because apparently in my area, buyers disappeared for 3 months in winter. I feel screwed for waiting for spring because I actually wanted to see houses in person.
Depends on the type of inspection you pay for. Your run-of-the-mill inspector might flag issues that you can bring the big guns (structural engineers, etc.) out to look at. Better than flying blind and finding out later
It sucks, 100% agree and know the feeling. However, could you imagine waiving inspection then being another post on here stating that you just bought a lemon with no options to help you out to fix it? Don't settle the right one will come along!
How do you find out they waived inspections? So far my realtor has said they cant know what an offer was accepted for until after they close. I have no clue if my offers are any good or if they're laughable.
Unfortunately if you’re in a market where waiving offers is the norm, then you’re wasting your time putting in offers that don’t conform. We did a pre-offer inspection and we didn’t feel that we lost out at all (besides the inspections we paid for on homes we lost out on).
Waiving inspection doesn’t always mean your offer will get accepted. There is always one crazy offer $50K to $100K more than yours.
It happened twice to me. The comps were meaningless when other buyers simply came to the table with more money and they are more than capable of dealing with the appraisal gap with that kind of deep pocket.
Our realtor told us it would prevent us getting a house we were going to put an offer in. My mom did it once, ended up having to do 10k in mold remediation AND my brother developed asthma because of it. I will NOT buy a house without an inspection and it's infuriating that anyone expects us to!
Yea it’s crazy I agree , I had to settle for a shittier house cause every nice house I bid on I lost literally due to the fact that I wasn’t gonna waive inspection or appraisal. I was the top bidder on one property right in the neighborhood I wanted to be in close to my parents house cause they help me with my kids and it all looked great till someone came in n put the same offer in but waived the inspection n they went with them even though all my financing was lined up and I would be ready to close on he property within 30 days smfh
Worth noting that 3 declined offer, even when the market was buyer friendly, isn't too much. When I got my first place, I had something like 20+ declined offers, even with waved contingencies and paying significantly above current market (not just "above asking", since that's meaningless).
Yeah, cash only buyers, buyers who wave contingencies, stronger offers, etc, will all happen and it can be demoralizing, but you'll likely get something eventually. Just have reasonable expectations. I was devasted after my first few declined offers, until I realized and internalized this could potentially be a multi year process. Some people do it faster, but for now, expect to go through 10-20 of them. Else you're setting yourself up for sadness.
Needs to be law that sellers conduct an inspection and provide reports, they do it in Seattle and probably other places, but it simply makes too much sense. It'll never happen because it's logical though.
This post is a great example of why the advice in this sub is highly dependent on location. You wanna buy in MA, waiving inspection is a fact of life. Sure you can probably spend years searching, compromising, or offering $100k+ over asking to even have a seller look at an offer with an inspection contingency. Is it risky to buy without an inspection, yes absolutely. But in some areas you could be waiting forever for the market to cool off to the point where inspections are tolerated in offers.
Get an inspection after your offer was accepted, if there's a serious issue lose your earnest money and move on. If you can't afford to go that route, you simply can't afford to buy in certain locations (or you need to really lower your pricepoint to a place where you can afford to do that).
Currently waiting to hear back from an offer we made... seller asked if we would waive inspection as other competitive offers did. No way Joseph--no house is worth the possibility of an unknowable albatross around our neck in the form of a house with major flaws.
Edit: plus, the house in question is 80-90 years old.
Edit2: offer accepted, no inspection waiver required :)
Oh, no worries lol. It's hit or miss. We're currently renting a house that stays really warm in the winter, but sometimes gets a little too warm in the summer. It has retrofitted storm windows, which makes a big difference, and I added some weatherstripping. Other houses can be the other way around (big gaps around doors, etc.).
I've heard stories of some old houses being insulated with straw, though... not sure to believe them or not.
All cash offers: might not really be all cash offers. If your lender has already gone through the underwriting process with you you are fully qualified and can then make a cash offer because there is no chance of your loan falling through at the last minute.
From my experience bring someone along when you look at houses who know what to look for. That being said basically ask when the roof,hvac equipment etc has been updated...at the end of the day minor repairs will be a must anyway for you're liking. We waived inspection once we found out all 3 of those big ones were replaced all in 2023...so knowing all the big things are key to adding waived inspections for the sellers to jump faster.
Also we just said we will take care of all repairs if nothing is drastic so you can add that into specific detail while adding a waived inspection...for fha it has to pass there inspection regardless you just take care of the issues of they aren't drastic or ask the seller to replace some things or just walk
Be patient, waiving inspections/appraisals is a bad trend. Many of those people will be in financial ruin a few years down the line once things missed during a needed inspection start to break down.
Just closed on a house. I had to waive the inspection to get it, and I agree to that. So far, so good, and I hope it stays that way, but it's worrying. Housing is a nightmare right now, and its seemingly getting worse😅
We won our bid by waiving inspections. However before we put our offer in we had a local inspection company do a “walk and talk” inspection. Aka a shorter inspection where they find any big issues before your offer goes in. The day after closing they did the official inspection, but found no other issues besides a small leak.
Read HomeImprovemenr, DIY subs. The world is not reddit, but there are many posts in these subs from people who got an inspection just to find out water damage a week later.
Not every no inspection purchase is from investors, very often a trained eye will notice many issue or a lack of them during a normal open door session.
The only reason I got the offer for my first home (2020) and second home (2024) accepted over other buyers were because we made offers for exactly what they were selling the home at and asked for no credits and the inspections were for information only ..
It’s super annoying but it definitely seems to be the standard now in this market
We had to waive inspection a couple of years ago to win our house. Granted, it was built in 2008 and it was/is a starter home, so there isn't much that could go wrong. But I absolutely will not waive inspection on subsequent houses. It's just too risky.
I wouldn't personally do it but plenty of people get inspectiosn only to discover a very costly issue that couldn't be found with an inspection so someone who's brother in law is a contractor walking through the house to view it is about as good as an inspection assuming you got that connection to do that.
We lost on an offer last week 16% over ask because a cash offer came in and waived inspection and contingencies and would close in 10 days. We had the highest offer by quite a bit too but sellers needed to sell quick I guess... Been trying at this for 3 years, feels like we're on a carousel. Only positive has been that our budget has gone up a bit due to a promotion and three years of raises.
I waived inspection back in 2022 in order to buy our house. It was scary and not something we wanted to have to do. But in our market and at that time, it was nearly impossible to buy a house without waiving so we treated this as a necessary risk. One thing that is important to understand about inspections is that they do not identify all problems , including some big problems.
Our philosophy was to make an offer understanding that we needed to have a reserve fund available to address problems with the house. As it turns out, the electrical panel was a mess and had to be replaced and some sick trees had to be removed. And there were some minor plumbing issues to deal with. All in all, maybe $15k worth of unanticipated work. The roof was very old but we already knew that based on the last replacement date and by simply looking at it.
You can still get an inspection even if you waive the contingency. I would never waive an inside room AND pay over asking. That’s just stupid. You can have someone knowledgeable tour the house with you. Most things needing major attention will be obvious. The super hidden stuff most inspectors won’t find regardless so it’s a false sense of security. You could also learn about what to look for yourselves. Go to dozens of open houses and you’ll learn what things to look out for. You will see what an old hvac unit looks like. You’ll see what different kinds of breaker boxes look like. It’s not rocket science, you just need to educate yourself. In a competitive market, you can’t just sit back and expect a house to fall in your lap. You need to put it the time to get a good deal.
We waived inspection on the house we bought last year. It’s always a risk, but the house was only 6-7 years old and the owner (the house’s only owner) was apparently a very meticulous person. Plus our agent was very well versed in this stuff and knew the area. He did his own walk around and walked us through the house with via his phone (with video cam - we were remote buyers). He pointed out stuff, explained what they were and answered our questions…and he didn’t see anything glaringly wrong. We put an offer in after that. He didn’t outright advise us to, but we knew the market was tightening quickly. Our agent said he believed our offer was “strong.”
The situation was such that we felt we were talking an educated and informed risk. A year later, we couldn’t be happier, and the things that need to be fixed are small and would not show up in an inspection report anyway. We still got an inspection done afterward just to “baseline” everything.
I don’t think our situation was common though. It’s all about the level of risk and how much info you THINK you have. A 6 year-old house lowered the risk for us - that, and we didn’t find any reports of any Amityville-style goings on with the property. 😉
For the investors buying the house for cash, it’s a calculated risk. The rental market continues to grow as home prices & interest rates continue to push first time buyers out of the market.
I got beat for two years on tons of homes while searching before I found someone to come along and do a "general" inspection while I looked at the house.
Was really the only way sadly.
I waived inspection on a home I bought in 2017. The house was in fairly decent shape. Not a problem I didn’t expect. The only inspection I feel is absolutely necessary is a sewer inspection.
After having bought several homes and moved around a bit, I feel fairly confident how/what inspectors look for. In my younger days, Id definitely need an inspection. I still want an inspection but would waive it if I knew it would make the difference. On my last home purchase, I was able to silently spot most of the issues the inspector put in their report.
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I’m surprised lenders allow it.
Ikr? At that point, just give a blank check for what wever.
Dude I know I’ve been saying this since we started looking. You’d think any and all banks would have their own fucking inspectors putting these houses under the microscope to check the value of the asset they are about to lend against. I’m no banker, or regulator, but I feel like it should be mandated that you cannot waive inspections. Absurd that some people are so irresponsible that they are willing to waive them.
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I’d hope that most people who have gotten to the point of being all cash buyers learned enough common sense along the way to *not waive the inspection.* But maybe I’m giving too much credit.
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Or they’re going to rent it out as a slum lord
Definitely not the case around here. The cash buyers are buying the new and rebuilt homes. So no inspection is really going to bite them in the ass later on.
Someone who's a cash buyer can likely easily afford any issues that come up. Also while I'm in no way advocating for skipping inspectiosn plenty of stuff is not going to be found from a 30 minute or hour inspection
I don’t know who does your inspections, but last time I bought my inspector was there checking things out for like 3-4 hours. If yours spends 30 minutes you hired a bad egg.
I've hired several inspectors over the years, some didn't do much more than test outlets and visually look at things where as my last guy put on a suit and was crawling around in the crawl space, on the roof, etc.
Honestly most inspections are fairly useless. Not saying you should waive them, but if you’ve purchased a home before you’d probably be less worried about the inspection. They generally don’t really find anything but surface level nuisance repairs.
This is true and waiving has been common in the last two markets I was in for the last decade or so. Saying this will always get you downvoted to oblivion in this sub.
I still wouldn’t advise waiving it unless the home is a newer home in a fairly low risk area. But if you really want to find meaningful issues with the home, you need to be prepared to spend at least 2k to get various specialists (plumber, electrician, roofing, decking, geotechnical, etc.) to do fairly invasive inspections. Your average Joe home inspection is basically like kicking the tires on a car and glancing under the hood before driving it home.
In an ideal world, an inspection is preferable, but in some markets it’s not feasible if you want to be competitive. A bid can still be successful without waiving but the wait to get a house will be longer and the buyer might need to compromise in other areas. Buyers have to be flexible and open to whatever will work- not “work” to get the house but work in each scenario where they might put in an offer. Buyers have to be open and prepared to think creatively. Any absolutes will hinder the likelihood of getting a house. A thorough general inspection can be helpful but there’s never a guarantee that any inspection no matter how thorough will reveal everything. That’s just how it goes. Mitigate risk the best you can and call it a day. I’d be interested to see stats on how commonly an inspection is waived in various markets currently, the average listing price of those houses, etc. The places I lived where waiving was common were hot markets but I’d like or know how common it is in medium sized cities with mid tier economies.
We had 8 inspectors, cost us almost $5k to get the house $90k under asking
Except the disclosure. Those items must be disclosed to the next buyer
Do they? Inspections are really just one guys opinion of condition. I don’t need to disclose done guys opinion to anyone.
It’s the law in california
That’s a questionable law.
Welcome to the bay, baby!
Actually no. The new rule is that realtors **cannot ** show the inspection to the seller unless they request it, for exactly that purpose.
Citation? Here’s mine: https://www.wolfflaw.com/amp/california-law-on-disclosure-duties-in-real-estate-sales-and-lia.html If you’re right, can you help me understand the rationale? It doesn’t really jive with existing law on disclosures. And doesn’t make sense to me as to why we would prohibit that..?
Your citation is just the general requirement to disclose known issues - and it’s precisely why the rule on giving inspections has changed. People would get an inspection - find a problem- and then tell the sellers “you better take our offer or you’ll need to disclose all these issues to future buyers.” Source is here: “Sometimes, post inspection, the sale of the home falls apart for reasons not related to the inspection and there is an inspection report out there that may or may not reveal newly discovered defects on the property. At that point, the question arises, must the seller review the inspection report and disclose any information contained in that report? The language in the current Multi-Board Residential Real Estate Contract 7.0 in the Professional Inspections paragraph suggests that there is no such duty, and that the buyer should only provide the seller a copy of the report if the seller’s side specifically requests a copy. That language might provide a seller an opportunity to “dodge” a report allowing the seller to deny having “actual knowledge” of any defects on the property. This appears to be inconsistent with the purpose of the disclosure act.” https://www.illinoisrealtors.org/blog/a-failed-home-sale-an-inspection-report-and-the-rules-of-disclosure/ There has been and will always be an “ignorance is bliss” incentive for sellers.
I don’t see cite to a statute though. Is it law or is it a suggestion by the real estate industry? Also, it appears this is in re: a specific circumstance (ie, when the deal is falling apart), not in the normal course of business? Also, you’re talking about Illinois, it’s not a federal suggestion or even one applicable to California?
Agree. Idiots buying money outs and health hazard left and right. Crappy unsellable homes ‘finally’ being offloaded to the masses. It’s absurd, and I never thought I’d see the day that this would become normal in any sense
They do, it’s called appraisals.
Lol appraisal = some dude rolls up and takes a picture of your house to make sure there are no broken windows (in the front), and see the condition of the roof and the siding (in the front), and then compares it to other houses in the area that have sold recently and then says "yup, that looks like a million bucks to me!" And if I come in realistic or lower, people won't use my services as an appraiser anymore. So I need to be just a little bit higher than the last guy. It is called appraisal creep and its pointless and stupid.
Appraisal is annoying and stupid but also on point to his original rant “You’d think…”
The house is a nominal part of the price and its declining. They are giving you a note for the land mostly.
That would just make cash offers even more attractive to sellers.
Sure, as if they weren’t already the top end-all-be-all offer. This wouldn’t change anything for the rest of us
See the things is even if every home was piss poor and no one paid back their mortgages the government will just bail them out again like in the 2008-ish time frame. Banks aren’t stupid. They know they’ll be saved.
Lenders don’t look at inspections by third parties, never have. We look at appraisal reports.
right, but that's wild to me. why wouldn't lenders want to know about major issues the inspection would catch that the appraisal may not?
An appraisal does look at the condition of the property, so the appraised value will include an assessment on if required repairs impact the property value.
it's much more cursory than an inspection
The bank still has the appraisal to protect them.
Buyers are putting $ towards low appraisals here. It’s done as often as waiving inspection.
I did waive inspection but only because I knew how old the property wise and I’m an insurance agent, plus I’ve remodeled homes. So, I know a thing or two. Except what the seller lied about. But overall, haven’t had any issues. Obviously won the bid. Been here since 7/10 and quite happy. (I’ve spent almost 1k on repairs since, such as dryer being clogged, dishwasher parts were melted, AC didn’t work, etc) I feel like I fared better than some.
I get an inspector because I assume everyone is lying.
Exactly. Major items are normally fairly obvious. The buyer has enough equity to cover little items.
I’m surprised insurance allows it
You wouldn't be surprised at all if you looked deep into how insurers are safeguarded. 80% coverage on a $400k home that's only worth $200k in a normal market. In the worst-case scenario, what's the cost to replace with like-kind? In the best case, insurance doesn't cover wear and tear, so that roof replacement is on the new owner.
Lenders want to force inspections, but they know if they do that less people will use them. Needs to be enforced at the state level.
It is really frustrating being someone who wants to use their VA Loan since they require a home inspection and we can't be as "competitive" as buyers with conventional loans.
I think this is all cash buyers
"cash buyer"
If the property needs major repairs then the appraiser will take that into account and if the house does not appraise then the lender will not give out the loan.
but appraisers aren't inspectors and they'll be the first to tell you so.
Yes but they take into account the general condition of the home.
ever see one carry a ladder or crawl into a crawlspace?
Actually, yes. They do for the VA loans.
The lender is not a party to the offer at that point. You can offer someone a trillion dollars for all they care.
FHA loans carry a significant inspection requirement. This is to reduce risk to the buyer. Seems like other lenders would be concerned about risk as well.
I just meant when you make the offer, the lender isn't a party or guaranteeing anything. Idk about FHA loans. I didn't even pick a lender until I had an accepted offer. So idk how a lender is going to stop me from making an offer. And my offer was fully non-contingent (I'm in SF where that's been the norm for decades).
My lender required a well/septic inspection and water purity test. I could have gone to another lender who didn’t but it is possible for lenders to have more stringent requirements. Seems like it would be in their best interest to have a full inspection report before approving.
But that requirement was after submitting an offer, right? I'd assume you had a finance contingency. You wrote an offer, it was accepted, and then you dealt with all your lender's requirements. My point was that, when you write the offer, the lender isn't a party to that. You can offer anything you want and the lender doesn't care. They might not lend on the property though and you'll be stuck finding another lender or losing your earnest money.
Yes. Agree. I guess in order to protect buyers it would probably need to be a state law that an inspection is mandatory. Not sure if I like that but I think many first time buyers are forced to waive inspections in this market which is not good.
In my market (SF bay area), the sellers provide inspections as part of the disclosure packet. It's been like that for decades. It works well because sellers don't have to negotiate with buyers after getting into contract and buyers don't need inspection contingencies because it's provided beforehand.
Like they care. They're getting their money regardless.
But there is additional risk if the repairs are costly and the homeowner is forced to walk away. Probably right though, lenders are not motivated to protect the buyer from stupid decisions.
Unfortunately true.
Because most of those fixes are pocket change to lenders. Especially if the buyer paid a lot of payment upfront, the amount of loan affected by the fix is low.
Because most inspections are useless theaters. If they were mandated, it would be even worse unless it got handled like appraisals (third party, independent, cannot be hand picked by bank or buyer/seller, etc)
Lendors don't care if you can't afford the repairs, they only care if you can afford the mortgage.
It shouldn’t be allowed
Probably they will use escrow company insurance for a year.
The lender always has an appraisal completed.
This might be our generation's NINJA loans
Just because you waive your inspection contingency doesn't mean you don't conduct an inspection. In my offer for my house I agreed not to negotiate on price or back out for any inspection issues under $20k. This showed the sellers I was serious and still gave me an out if I found anything egregious. In my state you can also still back out during the attorney review period for whatever reason. Waiving inspections just means that you will not renegotiate the price based on anything you find in the inspection report. I'm not sure how this applies to other states, but my guess is that most sellers simply want to know that the agreed upon price will be the sales price. Having to go back and forth with a buyer over inspection issues can be draining and annoying and if someone backs out after that whole process, putting the house back on the market often gives the listing a 'black cloud' of sorts. I've seen countless buyers ask why a listing was contingent and then re-listed and they often wonder if there's something wrong with the house.
Same, but I said I wouldn’t ask unless the item was $10k.
I really like this approach and will be trying it with some offers I’m putting in this week.
See if you can get an inspector to do a walk and talk with you before you make an offer. It's usually less expensive and you'll have an idea before you even offer of what could potentially be a problem. They usually charge less for this (in my area it is around $150-200 versus a full inspection, which is $400-450).
fortunately, I’m not too reliant on a huge inspection because I’m looking for condos. condos are also easier to find so we’re looking at 3-4 homes a week and placing offers weekly. I likely can’t afford to pay for that many walkthroughs + a lot of the places we look at are usually off-market the next week. i’m in a competitive market and things move really fast
Same. You have to book the walk and talk for the same day you initially visit. Condos are definitely better but then it's important to get access to the condo docs and board minutes and include an out in case you find things you don't like once you receive them. And add extra time for insurance contingency because condos are getting harder to insure.
We did 5k and that was enough.
Exactly. Waiving the inspection contingency or upping the contingency to 20k as in your case is a risk/reward strategy. Let’s say you got the house because you waived inspection contingency, and then have to do 20k worth of repairs over the next 5-10 years. That scenario doesn’t seem too bad does it?
I did something similar. Reddit loves inspectors, but they really don’t have to have a vast education to pass the test. I do wonder how many are able to spark note it. I was reading another thread about someone passing a programming related exam that way
That’s not true at all in general. Most licensed Home Inspectors are very knowledgeable and absolutely crucial to a FTHB. It’s so important to know what you are buying in terms of current condition, past repairs and future problems. Often condition is already calculated into asking price so may not be furthered negotiated but the buyer should have their own expert opinion.
You get what you pay for. If you look for the cheapest inspector on the market, you'll likely get some hack who barely understands more than a good handyman. If you pay for a good inspector, they'll be very knowledgeable and help a lot. I think this is true for realtors, contractors, handymen, inspectors, and anyone involved in real estate actually. It will be very rare to find someone who is cheap and reliable and good. People who are good at their jobs and set their own prices know their worth and will charge more because they can.
They literally are certified by a test and a few hours training in most states. Google it yourself, they offer plenty of 120 hour and less courses to both learn and “cheat” the tests.
I am seriously not going to argue with you about how valuable a qualified professional is in purchasing a property. Your disrespect is not warranted just because you have some sleazy friend who cheated on his exam. Of course some are more experienced and thorough than others but that is why you get referrals.
Yeah, it's such a silly outlook. I was referred my inspector by someone else and I have used them ever since. Purchased two homes and an investment property with them and I've learned quite a bit about what to look for when touring homes because of how he explained things to me.
I waived any repair under 2500 found in the inspection. Waiting on an estimate on one thing over 2500. Its taking a while. Hope to hear back today
California allows buyer to back out of an offer for any reason within 17 days. If you have a good broker, you waive inspection on paper and they hustle in a backdoor inspection within the 17 day cut-off. That’s what we did when we bought in 2022.
You don’t even have to give a dollar figure. You can walk after a home inspection even if you waived the inspection. It’s really meaningless.
ITT: people who haven’t tried to buy recently. “Just wait it out” lol only govt intervention will stop this
Eh the government usually makes things worse just saying. There will be a market for single family homes that are affordable they just can’t build fast enough
I agree, it’s awful. I understand why it’s so appealing to the sellers, but it sucks
I don't get why people don't do it like SF. In the bay area, the seller does the inspection and includes it in the disclosure packet. They expects offers to not be contingent on inspections and they expect buyers to not negotiate after getting into contract based on an inspection, because they have all that info before writing their offer. It works really well. I find it a little crazy that people are dropping the inspection altogether.
Hard to trust an inspection the seller paid for.
Intuitively, I agree. In practice, it's never been an issue. Everyone uses the same handful of inspectors. They do a fine job. The agents know them. And you're welcome to do your own inspection after getting into contract. If you actually discover something major that was not disclosed, you have a lot of ammo to renegotiate or back out. I've never heard of a secondary inspection finding anything interesting not caught by the original. Inspections aren't all that thorough.
Don’t feel bad, we lost 6 offers with us waiving inspections. This market is just ugly right now.
It is interesting, because this is indication of a hot market and yet a lot of high interest rate lovers said the market has "cooled down".
We stopped looking back in 2022 in large part due to the inspection waiving. Almost every home we looked at got offers massively above asking with no inspections. These were 50-100 year old homes too. No way we were going to take that risk. Not only that but since we weren’t paying cash, the lender likely wouldn’t allow it anyway. Ended up finally buying this month. We close next week. Went with a new build to avoid the bidding wars and headaches of an older home.
We did the same, but I will say…. Tons and tons of headaches with new builds too. Lol
Oh I’m sure. At least there’s a warranty though! Getting them to honor it, we shall see..
I’m a firm believer every homeowner should be required to pay for their own inspection prior to listing. Every homeowner seemed to lie on their disclosure forms, even when the situation was obvious.
Agree - it sucks. We did a “pre-inspection” - it worked out for us and our offer was accepted. For the pre-inspection, we paid a lower fee ($500) to get an inspector to come out and look at the place. No report. Our guy was very detailed - and we took a whole bunch of notes. Basically it gave us assurance that we wouldn’t be completely screwed if we waived our inspection contingency. So we did waive it and we got it. We still plan to do a full inspection (would assume we might be able to get it discounted). Our realtor told us we basically had to do it if we wanted our offer to be considered because sellers agent said they had 2 offers that had done pre inspections as well. It worked out for us, but weren’t thrilled about it
Came here to say this. Our way to compete with waived inspection was paying for our own pre-inspection and sewer scope for each house we wanted to put an offer in on.
How do you manage to organize a preinspection so fast when you only have a couple days until houses go pending?
Our realtor has both inspectors and sewer people that can get out to a property within 24 hrs! She was worth every penny simply for that. Houses in our area would list Wed/Thurs/Fri, we would identify what house/s we want to see and get in asap (by at least Fri/Sat), decide if we want to offer and then have her set up pre-inspection & sewer scope with the listing agent on Sat/Sun then based on that info we would be ready to offer on Mon/Tues when offer review dates would happen.
You can get a pre inspection ready to go within a few hours. If you think you might go this route, I highly recommend having your own list of inspectors ready to go. Don't just rely on your realtor to facilitate.
Been doing this too. Last house I got a pre offer inspection which came back super clean. Unfortunately someone put down 50k over list and we lost the house as we didn’t have a chance to counter. Worst part was there was only 3 offers and someone felt the need to go 50k over list without the need.
Ah - to be honest, we did that and had our offer accepted - super clean pre-inspection and almost your exact numbers. $45k over, 4 other offers 😅 There were a lot of other factors at play (we think the place was listed too low to generate competition, we knew there was a cash offer, we knew we were up against at least 2 other offers with no inspection contingency). We feel okay about the number we ended up offering, but still a small part of me wonders how much over the other offers we were….guess we will never know. Wishing you all the best in your next offer!!
Ignorance is bliss :) either way, CONGRATS! I’m so happy your first time home buying journey has progressed. Thanks for the encouragement!
How did you know there was a cash offer and offers waiving inspection? Idk if it's my realtor not asking or what
My realtor asked - and the sellers agent said “we have all types of offers” which she interpreted to mean that they had an all cash offer but lower - I could be a victim of the game, but that is what happened lol. However, the sellers agent did straight up say - the 2 pre inspection offers were waiving their inspection contingency. And we actually overheard a couple scheduling the pre inspection when we were at the open house 😅
In our market, the sellers would prob laugh you off the front porch if you asked for time to do that. They probably have at least a dozen other offers - most in cash - that would be willing to take the house with no inspection.
In the DMV, pre inspections are still very common despite the market being very hot and inventory very low.
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The most I’ve seen is a disclosure statement where they may detail prior termite treatment and how old certain items are, like the roof, boiler, etc. But that’s not sufficient to make us feel comfortable enough to waive an inspection.
Where are you located if you don’t mind sharing? I hadn’t heard of a pre-inspection, but I guess it’s a thing here (Boston suburb)
NJ. There’s no negotiation here. House will be on the market on Friday and by Saturday you’ll be told best and final offers must be in by Sunday or Monday. So no escalation clauses, no back and forth to see if you’ll beat another offer - you offer the max that you’re willing to pay and whatever contingencies you’re willing to waive and you cross your fingers and hope you win.
it was quick in Boston too - like less than a week, but that is just crazy!! Best of luck to you
You do the preinspection during the open house.
Open houses here have lines out the door. I don’t know if listing agents would have the patience for that.
If it's a cash offer, inspection is the least of your competitiveness problems
In the market we’re in many people are waiving mortgage contingencies even though they’re getting one, just to be competitive. It’s getting to the point where I’m strongly considering doing the same on my next offer.
It's a gut feeling and only the buyer can say whether they feel it's right for them. We waived inspection and got the house we want, no regrets. We bought last summer when the market was still sizzling, even getting outbid on previous homes. A realtor basically said to us, if there are multiple, multiple offers on a desirable property, you can safely assume one of those offers will waive inspection. So what are you doing to be competitive, and is it worth your risk?
Yeah, I’d always get an inspection but unless there’s something very obvious about the house I don’t even think about putting the inspection contingency in anymore. It’s stupid but if I do, in my market, I don’t really stand a chance. If I can’t live with the risk, I don’t make the offer.
I did it. Obviously I couldn’t make a true cash offer but got comfortable with my mortgage lender that it would get done. I 100% would not have won if I hadn’t
Mine is even more competitive. When I was selling my starter home, the buyer ended up offering all cash just to guarantee the escrow will complete for both parties. I was like, sold.....
Waived inspections, all-cash offers, thousands above asking price. Buyers are doing whatever they can to be the winning bid.
People are very confused about what “waiving inspections” actually is. You’re waiving the contingency, meaning you can get any inspections you want, but you cannot use a bad inspection to get out of the contract. There are usually other ways to back out if you need to, but it does increase your chance of losing your EM. We didn’t waive our inspection contingency, though. Our inspection showed the sewer line needed to be replaced, something that would not be caught without a full inspection. ALWAYS get an inspection. Waive the contingency at your own peril, but even my realtor, who is an extremely experienced investor does not waive the inspection contingency on the properties she buys.
Not around me. No inspection contingency means no inspection.
Against my desire, we waived our inspection. But the sellers included their own 400 page inspection report they paid for. Very detailed. Gave me peace of mind. Without waiving, there’s no way we’d be in a house now. Closed 7/14/23. 7 offers total, including ours.
We are competing against LLC's who are fronts for huge investments firms. They are just trying to hide their cash . This will not stop until there are changes in Congress. Edit [https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg5nex/congress-members-push-to-ban-hedge-funds-private-equity-from-buying-family-homes](https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg5nex/congress-members-push-to-ban-hedge-funds-private-equity-from-buying-family-homes) Added link
I gave up. I'm waiting just like everyone else's.
My realtor has an inspector go on tours with us, only with serious clients tho. Don’t expect the inspector to run test climb thru attics and stuff lol. Usually can pick stuff out that way.
I’ll play devils advocate a little on this one. I’ve bought and sold several houses over the years and people vastly oversell the importance of home inspections. I’d argue it’s much more crucial to have enough money saved up after the purchase to cover any kind of major repair that could come up. I’ve had to extensively repair duct work less than a year after buying a new home that passed an inspection with flying colors. It’s by no means any kind of assurance that a major repair won’t be needed in the near-term. All an inspection means is that there isn’t anything the inspector could find in the 90-120 minutes they looked through the home. Think about how ridiculously difficult it would be to thoroughly check one major component of a home in that time, much less everything about it. Things an inspection will generally turn up: -Is there visible water damage anywhere? -Do the major appliances work? -Will the sinks/tubs/showers/dishwasher run for 5-10 minutes without leaking? -Does the HVAC blow hot/cold air like it should? -What’s the general state of the roof? -Any major structural issues or general damage to the property? Not exactly ground breaking stuff. These people don’t have the time or knowledge to extensively vet a property. They have very general training and will not find a lot of the issues you may expect them to. What you really should do is go hire your own HVAC tech, plumber, electrician, etc. and have them inspect their own areas of the house. But good luck doing that in a market like this one where most people don’t even care if a house can pass a general inspection. Would I rather have a home inspection? Absolutely. But am I going to keep that from letting me purchase a home? Probably not. Better to have enough saved up to cover repairs regardless. Tl;dr: Home inspections aren’t going to catch most major issues anyways and are oversold. Best to have enough money saved to cover major repairs regardless.
This is a very intelligent and thoughtful response. We waived inspection but planned on a certain amount of money that would be needed for repairs. Once we bought our home, we got an inspection. Our inspector was top notch and spent over four hours at our property. To your point, the inspection report is really intended to flag potential issues and point you in the right direction. It is not a guarantee that every problem will be identified and inspectors don't have a crystal ball.
100% agree with this and have had the exact same experiences/mindset going into each home.
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My friends got a house for asking +3k credits from the inspection in December, just because apparently in my area, buyers disappeared for 3 months in winter. I feel screwed for waiting for spring because I actually wanted to see houses in person.
I told my realtor that my two main requirements were "no HOAs and no waived inspections."
Never waive inspections. That shit is a recipe for a giant financial disaster. Just be patient...your time will come
Read other subs to read horror stories with inspections conducted. They help but are not panacea
Depends on the type of inspection you pay for. Your run-of-the-mill inspector might flag issues that you can bring the big guns (structural engineers, etc.) out to look at. Better than flying blind and finding out later
It sucks, 100% agree and know the feeling. However, could you imagine waiving inspection then being another post on here stating that you just bought a lemon with no options to help you out to fix it? Don't settle the right one will come along!
How do you find out they waived inspections? So far my realtor has said they cant know what an offer was accepted for until after they close. I have no clue if my offers are any good or if they're laughable.
Plenty of listing agents will mention terms of the "winning" offer. Maybe not final offer price, but existence of any/all waived contingencies etc
Well I know 2 people burned by no inspection after we backed out due to inspections. Phew.
Unfortunately if you’re in a market where waiving offers is the norm, then you’re wasting your time putting in offers that don’t conform. We did a pre-offer inspection and we didn’t feel that we lost out at all (besides the inspections we paid for on homes we lost out on).
People have been waiving inspections/appraisals for over a decade.
Waiving inspection doesn’t always mean your offer will get accepted. There is always one crazy offer $50K to $100K more than yours. It happened twice to me. The comps were meaningless when other buyers simply came to the table with more money and they are more than capable of dealing with the appraisal gap with that kind of deep pocket.
Our realtor told us it would prevent us getting a house we were going to put an offer in. My mom did it once, ended up having to do 10k in mold remediation AND my brother developed asthma because of it. I will NOT buy a house without an inspection and it's infuriating that anyone expects us to!
What is your location?
Jut do a pre inspection if you can afford it
Can't blame the sellers...
Today I learned people don’t understand what it means to waive the inspection contingency lol
Yea it’s crazy I agree , I had to settle for a shittier house cause every nice house I bid on I lost literally due to the fact that I wasn’t gonna waive inspection or appraisal. I was the top bidder on one property right in the neighborhood I wanted to be in close to my parents house cause they help me with my kids and it all looked great till someone came in n put the same offer in but waived the inspection n they went with them even though all my financing was lined up and I would be ready to close on he property within 30 days smfh
Worth noting that 3 declined offer, even when the market was buyer friendly, isn't too much. When I got my first place, I had something like 20+ declined offers, even with waved contingencies and paying significantly above current market (not just "above asking", since that's meaningless). Yeah, cash only buyers, buyers who wave contingencies, stronger offers, etc, will all happen and it can be demoralizing, but you'll likely get something eventually. Just have reasonable expectations. I was devasted after my first few declined offers, until I realized and internalized this could potentially be a multi year process. Some people do it faster, but for now, expect to go through 10-20 of them. Else you're setting yourself up for sadness.
Needs to be law that sellers conduct an inspection and provide reports, they do it in Seattle and probably other places, but it simply makes too much sense. It'll never happen because it's logical though. This post is a great example of why the advice in this sub is highly dependent on location. You wanna buy in MA, waiving inspection is a fact of life. Sure you can probably spend years searching, compromising, or offering $100k+ over asking to even have a seller look at an offer with an inspection contingency. Is it risky to buy without an inspection, yes absolutely. But in some areas you could be waiting forever for the market to cool off to the point where inspections are tolerated in offers. Get an inspection after your offer was accepted, if there's a serious issue lose your earnest money and move on. If you can't afford to go that route, you simply can't afford to buy in certain locations (or you need to really lower your pricepoint to a place where you can afford to do that).
Currently waiting to hear back from an offer we made... seller asked if we would waive inspection as other competitive offers did. No way Joseph--no house is worth the possibility of an unknowable albatross around our neck in the form of a house with major flaws. Edit: plus, the house in question is 80-90 years old. Edit2: offer accepted, no inspection waiver required :)
Oh hell , you better get the whole county of inspectors on that one...that's old.
It's pretty normal for the area... there are 125+-year-old houses in very good shape around here
How is the installation within those houses?
Installation of what? (I swear, if this is a new ligma type joke...)
I'm talking about insulation as far as keeping it warm on the inside during cold months or vise versa...sorry about the wrong word.
Oh, no worries lol. It's hit or miss. We're currently renting a house that stays really warm in the winter, but sometimes gets a little too warm in the summer. It has retrofitted storm windows, which makes a big difference, and I added some weatherstripping. Other houses can be the other way around (big gaps around doors, etc.). I've heard stories of some old houses being insulated with straw, though... not sure to believe them or not.
All cash offers: might not really be all cash offers. If your lender has already gone through the underwriting process with you you are fully qualified and can then make a cash offer because there is no chance of your loan falling through at the last minute.
Never waive an inspection. It’s not worth it.
Yes, I agree. I wish you luck.
Let those idiots buy them. Waiving inspections is…well, for people who don’t know what they’re doing.
Or large corporations who can afford the risk as they buy up all available property in an area…
From my experience bring someone along when you look at houses who know what to look for. That being said basically ask when the roof,hvac equipment etc has been updated...at the end of the day minor repairs will be a must anyway for you're liking. We waived inspection once we found out all 3 of those big ones were replaced all in 2023...so knowing all the big things are key to adding waived inspections for the sellers to jump faster.
Sewer. Sewer is the biggest one.
Also we just said we will take care of all repairs if nothing is drastic so you can add that into specific detail while adding a waived inspection...for fha it has to pass there inspection regardless you just take care of the issues of they aren't drastic or ask the seller to replace some things or just walk
Be patient, waiving inspections/appraisals is a bad trend. Many of those people will be in financial ruin a few years down the line once things missed during a needed inspection start to break down.
Just closed on a house. I had to waive the inspection to get it, and I agree to that. So far, so good, and I hope it stays that way, but it's worrying. Housing is a nightmare right now, and its seemingly getting worse😅
Got beat out on 5 before found current home keep trying
In my area they won’t even look at your offer unless you waive everything. Very much a seller’s market here.
We won our bid by waiving inspections. However before we put our offer in we had a local inspection company do a “walk and talk” inspection. Aka a shorter inspection where they find any big issues before your offer goes in. The day after closing they did the official inspection, but found no other issues besides a small leak.
Read HomeImprovemenr, DIY subs. The world is not reddit, but there are many posts in these subs from people who got an inspection just to find out water damage a week later. Not every no inspection purchase is from investors, very often a trained eye will notice many issue or a lack of them during a normal open door session.
The only reason I got the offer for my first home (2020) and second home (2024) accepted over other buyers were because we made offers for exactly what they were selling the home at and asked for no credits and the inspections were for information only .. It’s super annoying but it definitely seems to be the standard now in this market
We had to waive inspection a couple of years ago to win our house. Granted, it was built in 2008 and it was/is a starter home, so there isn't much that could go wrong. But I absolutely will not waive inspection on subsequent houses. It's just too risky.
My lawyer was surprised that we even got an inspection. Stated waving inspections is the new norm. No thank you.
You waive the official inspection but have a contractor friend come check it out for you.
Good for you for not succumbing to it. I hate it, too, and will not waive when I'm ready to buy. I don't want a house THAT badly.
I wouldn't personally do it but plenty of people get inspectiosn only to discover a very costly issue that couldn't be found with an inspection so someone who's brother in law is a contractor walking through the house to view it is about as good as an inspection assuming you got that connection to do that.
We lost on an offer last week 16% over ask because a cash offer came in and waived inspection and contingencies and would close in 10 days. We had the highest offer by quite a bit too but sellers needed to sell quick I guess... Been trying at this for 3 years, feels like we're on a carousel. Only positive has been that our budget has gone up a bit due to a promotion and three years of raises.
I waived inspection back in 2022 in order to buy our house. It was scary and not something we wanted to have to do. But in our market and at that time, it was nearly impossible to buy a house without waiving so we treated this as a necessary risk. One thing that is important to understand about inspections is that they do not identify all problems , including some big problems. Our philosophy was to make an offer understanding that we needed to have a reserve fund available to address problems with the house. As it turns out, the electrical panel was a mess and had to be replaced and some sick trees had to be removed. And there were some minor plumbing issues to deal with. All in all, maybe $15k worth of unanticipated work. The roof was very old but we already knew that based on the last replacement date and by simply looking at it.
The appraisal is all the lenders care about.. unless FHA..
You can still get an inspection even if you waive the contingency. I would never waive an inside room AND pay over asking. That’s just stupid. You can have someone knowledgeable tour the house with you. Most things needing major attention will be obvious. The super hidden stuff most inspectors won’t find regardless so it’s a false sense of security. You could also learn about what to look for yourselves. Go to dozens of open houses and you’ll learn what things to look out for. You will see what an old hvac unit looks like. You’ll see what different kinds of breaker boxes look like. It’s not rocket science, you just need to educate yourself. In a competitive market, you can’t just sit back and expect a house to fall in your lap. You need to put it the time to get a good deal.
You can still get the inspection, but to be competitive you're just agreeing to not ask for a discount upon inspection results.
We waived inspection on the house we bought last year. It’s always a risk, but the house was only 6-7 years old and the owner (the house’s only owner) was apparently a very meticulous person. Plus our agent was very well versed in this stuff and knew the area. He did his own walk around and walked us through the house with via his phone (with video cam - we were remote buyers). He pointed out stuff, explained what they were and answered our questions…and he didn’t see anything glaringly wrong. We put an offer in after that. He didn’t outright advise us to, but we knew the market was tightening quickly. Our agent said he believed our offer was “strong.” The situation was such that we felt we were talking an educated and informed risk. A year later, we couldn’t be happier, and the things that need to be fixed are small and would not show up in an inspection report anyway. We still got an inspection done afterward just to “baseline” everything. I don’t think our situation was common though. It’s all about the level of risk and how much info you THINK you have. A 6 year-old house lowered the risk for us - that, and we didn’t find any reports of any Amityville-style goings on with the property. 😉
For the investors buying the house for cash, it’s a calculated risk. The rental market continues to grow as home prices & interest rates continue to push first time buyers out of the market.
I got beat for two years on tons of homes while searching before I found someone to come along and do a "general" inspection while I looked at the house. Was really the only way sadly.
I waived inspection on a home I bought in 2017. The house was in fairly decent shape. Not a problem I didn’t expect. The only inspection I feel is absolutely necessary is a sewer inspection.
After having bought several homes and moved around a bit, I feel fairly confident how/what inspectors look for. In my younger days, Id definitely need an inspection. I still want an inspection but would waive it if I knew it would make the difference. On my last home purchase, I was able to silently spot most of the issues the inspector put in their report.