Making an offer on a home contingent on a complete home inspection is wise. Houses cost a lot of money and buyers need to know what they are getting themselves into.
Even a complete home inspection is no guarantee that there won’t be problems later on. Sometimes houses sit vacant for a time and problems go unnoticed.
Other times a house that has been occupied by one or two people suddenly becomes a home for 4 or 5 people and things get used differently and they break.
Everything can be in working condition before the closing and then break on the day of the closing. Personally, I really hate it when that happens but it does happen.
My intent isn’t to scare first time home buyers away from our old St. Paul houses but to educated people to the fact that there are no guarantees. Just because something is working today that doesn’t mean it will work tomorrow.
Most everything in a house wears out and we can’t always anticipate what might fail, leak or break. Home buyers can buy a warranty. There are several available that will pay for some repairs. Buyers can pay for it themselves, or ask the sellers to pay for it.
Often the first thing a new homeowner does when there is a problem is to look for someone to blame. There isn’t always someone at fault and it is possible to live in a house for years and not know about a defect.
It is important to set a little money aside to deal with an emergency. At some point, there will be an emergency repair. It might not be in the first year of home ownership but it will happen eventually.
