So, what is a property inspection or Building inspection? Both are the same thing but just different terms used by businesses and people.
A pre-purchase building inspection is something you will be enquiring about when it comes time to purchase your new home and its paramount that you make the correct choice when you select a business to complete your pre-purchase building inspection.
Sydney is heavily populated and always growing and the properties will vary from the late 1800s, early 1900s to now and the number of major defects that can be found will vary with many actually not being repairable due to the age of the building and some major defects will be extremely expensive to repair.
The aim of a pre-purchase building inspection is to be completely aware of the condition of the property which you are looking to purchase and ensuring you have the funds and are willing to do the repairs and maintenance required to have a safe family home for now and the future.
When we do our property inspections, we treat it as if it was our own home we are about to purchase and our aim is to ensure you are completely aware, eyes wide open on what you are about to buy and we will tell you how this property compares to other properties of that era of construction. Its important that you are not just aware of the major defects but the common defects for certain type of properties because there is no point on forgoing a purchase because of certain defects when those particular defects may be very common for that construction type or era of property you are looking at.
When evaluating a building inspection report its important to try and understand what the defect is and how it will affect the property. Can it be fixed? If so, how difficult is it to fix and the cost involved in doing the work. When you understand these fundamentals then you can evaluate the price. Is the price of the home already discounted because its dilapidated, has the owner discounted the house price in allowance for these issues? Or was the purchase price negotiated on the assumption the home was in great condition with no fundamental issues? When you answered these questions then can you make the choice of whether to buy the property or re negotiating the purchase price for the property or maybe just putting it in the too hard basket and walking away!
Over the years there is no doubt a detailed pre-purchase building inspection report plays a major role in negotiating money off the agreed purchase price. Its very rare that our clients do not walk away with a discount on the purchase price of the home unless of course the home is in great condition and then it should be happy days for both the purchaser and seller!
Unfortunately, a lot of home buyers a short sighted when looking to arrange a building inspection for their potential new home in Sydney. Shopping around for the cheapest building inspection they can find. But why? Is this not your biggest investment of a life time? Do you really want to run the gauntlet hoping your inspector does a good job. Time is Money and the inspection cost will reflect that regardless who you choose. No one works for free, so pay cheap expect a cheap service. The funny thing is that paying the extra cost for a thorough inspection, it would only take the inspector finding one extra defect which could save you tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs and potentially save you purchasing a property with major issues or at the very least will allow you to negotiate on the price of the purchase anyway ultimately saving you money.
In another article we will talk about Property inspection companies and what to look for when choosing the right building inspector for you and we will get into what is a Major and Minor defect on property inspection reports.
Also visit our website: www.clearviewpropertyinspections.com.au where we have numerous videos with advice.