What Happens During a Home Inspection?

Your offer was accepted, and now someone is coming to look for everything wrong with the house you already love. That’s an uncomfortable few days. But the inspection is the one part of this process that exists entirely for your protection, and knowing how it unfolds takes most of the sting out of it.

What an inspection actually is

A home inspection is a licensed inspector’s visual, non-invasive review of the house’s condition. They walk the property for two to four hours, depending on size and age, and check the things that are expensive to fix: the roof, foundation and structure, electrical panel and wiring, plumbing and water heater, HVAC, attic insulation and ventilation, windows and doors, drainage and grading.

The word visual is doing a lot of work in that sentence. An inspector opens what opens and looks at what’s reachable. They don’t cut into walls, dig up the yard, or move your seller’s furniture. What they can see, they’ll document thoroughly. What they can’t, they’ll flag for a specialist.

You should be there

Most inspectors welcome you to walk along, and I’d encourage it. The written report will tell you a water heater is at the end of its service life. Standing next to it while the inspector explains why tells you something the report can’t, and it’s your one chance to ask questions of a professional whose only job that day is your interests.

Bring a phone for photos and notes. Ask which items are safety issues, which are aging normally, and which are cosmetic. Those are three very different categories that can look identical in a bulleted report.

What it costs and who pays

You pay, and you pay out of pocket at the time of service. A general inspection on a typical single-family home runs roughly $300 to $500, with larger homes going higher and small condos coming in lower.

Common add-ons, each usually $100 to $400:

• Sewer scope. A camera sent down the main line. On an older home with mature trees near the sewer lateral, this is the last one I’d cut from the list.
• Radon test. Worth it in known radon areas, and your agent will know whether yours is one.
• Pest or termite inspection. Sometimes required by the loan, often not.
• Pool, septic, chimney, or mold testing. As the property warrants.

One thing worth understanding: this fee isn’t part of your closing costs. It’s separate, it’s spent before you know whether you’re buying the house, and it’s non-refundable if you walk away. That’s genuinely the point. A few hundred dollars is a small price for information that can save you from a $20,000 surprise.

The inspection is not the appraisal

These two get confused constantly, and the difference matters to your loan.

The inspection is yours. You hire the inspector, you get the report, and your lender never sees it. It’s about the physical condition of the house.

The appraisal is the lender’s. It gets ordered through the lender, you pay for it, and it exists to confirm the home is worth what you agreed to pay so the loan is properly secured. An appraiser does a much lighter walkthrough and is thinking about value, not about your water heater.

A house can appraise beautifully and still have a failing roof. You need both.

Your contingency clock

Most purchase contracts include an inspection contingency, typically seven to fourteen days from acceptance, though this varies by contract and by state. Inside that window you can accept the home as-is, ask the seller for repairs or a credit, or withdraw and get your earnest money back.

That window is shorter than it sounds. Reports usually arrive within a day or two, and if the inspector recommends a specialist, you’ll need time to get that second opinion, gather a bid, and negotiate. Schedule the inspection the same week your offer is accepted, not the week your contingency expires.

When the report finds problems

It will find problems. Something close to nine in ten inspections turn up at least one item that needs attention, and a thick report is usually a thorough inspector rather than a failing house. Read it in three passes:

Safety and structure first. Active leaks, foundation movement, unsafe wiring, gas issues. These are the ones worth reopening negotiations over.

Big-ticket age second. A roof or furnace with a few years left isn’t a defect, but it’s a real number you should be budgeting for.

Everything else last. Loose railings, a running toilet, missing outlet covers. Real, but not worth spending your negotiating capital on.

From there you can ask for repairs before closing, ask for a credit toward closing costs instead, or accept the house as it is. I often see credits work better than repairs, since you control who does the work and to what standard rather than inheriting a rushed fix.

One caution on the loan side: if the seller agrees to a credit, tell me early. Credits are capped by loan program and can affect how your file is structured, so it’s much easier to build them in than to unwind them three days before closing.

The bottom line

An inspection is a few hundred dollars and a few hours to learn what you’re actually buying. It won’t be a clean report, and it isn’t supposed to be. Go to the inspection, schedule it early in your contingency window, sort the findings by what’s dangerous versus what’s simply old, and remember that your inspector and your appraiser are answering two completely different questions. Walking away is always on the table, and sometimes it’s the right call.

Ready to learn more?

If you’re under contract or getting close, I’d be honored to walk you through how your inspection findings fit into your loan and your timeline, so nothing catches you off guard.