Tempted to Waive the Inspection? Try a Pass/Fail Inspection, Instead

If you’re buying a house in our current seller’s market, you might be tempted to waive your home inspection in order to make your offer more appealing to the seller. Maybe you think you can fix things yourself, or your sister is super handy, so some reversed hot and cold faucets or missed grout is no big deal.

Please be careful.

Most agents will discourage you from waiving the inspection entirely. It’s important that you have a snapshot of the health of your future home, even if there is nothing major uncovered. But if the inspection finds something significant, you’d want to know beforehand and give yourself a chance to get out of the sale.

What has become increasingly common is a Pass/Fail inspection. Here’s how it works:

• The buyer notifies the seller that they’re going to have an inspection, but it is only for their information, and they will not be requesting any fixes from the seller.
• If the inspection uncovers a huge problem, the inspection “fails,” and the buyer can get out of the deal.
• If the inspection uncovers only “minor” issues — i.e., anything other than what is outlined by the inspector as something of note — the inspection “passes” and the sale proceeds. In this case, the buyer knows what they need to fix after they take occupancy, and the seller doesn’t have to worry about making any home repairs.

In today’s market, that’s a good compromise between having a traditional home inspection or waiving it altogether.

As always, if you have questions about the buying or selling process, get in touch with us anytime!