June 5, 2019

We sat down with Adam at Ground Up Home Inspections in Bellingham to ask a few questions.

The first: What are the 3 items that come up most often in home inspections in the Pacific Northwest?

The answer:
1) Moisture intrusion (leaking roof or standing. water in crawl space).
2) Pest Infestation (rats/mice getting into crawl space or attic spaces of homes).
3) Old systems (dated unsafe wiring/old plumbing).

We followed that by asking, which would be the #1 issue of those that causes buyers to back out?

What was interesting here was the answer is 2 part.

1) Older systems (older wiring/plumbing etc in older homes).
2) But the 2nd and perhaps more important part of the answer was that it may not be the house–but not a right fit for the buyer. OR simply a situation where the buyer was not prepared for what could come up. This can lead to feeling overwhelmed, and thus wanting to back out. This falls partially on the Realtor, as part of our job is to educate the buyer on potential issues that will come up during the home inspection.
This is something we always work to do with my clients. Shed light on issues we can see from our first visit through the home. And that can often allow the buyer more time to consider those issues, research them, consider costs of updating/repairs, etc. And perhaps prepare an offer with much of that already in mind.