Ask the REALTOR: Can I do my own home inspection, or do I need to hire someone to do it?

Ask the REALTOR® is a regular video series in which I answer your most commonly-asked real estate questions, with a new Q&A posting every week. If YOU have a real estate question for me, drop me a note here.

This week’s question: Can I do my own home inspection, or do I need to hire someone to do it? Here’s the answer in this brief video, and don’t miss the transcript below.

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Transcript:

Hi. This is Cari McGee with Keller Williams Real Estate. Welcome to this week’s episode of “Ask the Realtor.” Every week, I answer questions from buyers and sellers and pretty much everyone in between regarding real estate. This week’s question is:

“For my home inspection, can I do that myself? Can I have my buddy do it? Or do I need to hire a home inspector?”

You need to hire a licensed home inspector in the state of Washington. All home inspectors have had to be licensed in this state since 2008. Or you can do it yourself. You can’t have your cousin do it or your best friend who knows a lot about houses. And unless you have a really intricate knowledge of Washington’s state building codes and trends and things that have happened in the construction industry over the last several years — unless you have that, I’m gonna go ahead and recommend you go ahead and hire a licensed home inspector.

They have knowledge, and they can tell you whether something is not a big deal, something that’s major and needs to be brought to the seller’s attention, whether something’s a real quick weekend project or whether something is, you know, pretty significant. And they have all of that knowledge right at the ready, and they are absolutely worth the money you pay them.

So that’s the scoop for that question. If you have any other questions for me regarding real estate, by all means, give me a shout via any one of the methods that follow on the next screen. Have a great week, and I’ll talk to you soon. Bye, bye.