Conducting Your Own Home Inspection

By Patty Goff


If you were shopping for a house and you have finally found one that you really like, make sure you have it inspected. You may either choose to perform the home inspection on your own or have a home inspector come in and give it a thorough check. Before spending money on a professional, you may want to check it yourself as a way of assessing whether you will like what you will find.

A residential assessment is very easy to conduct. You do not have to go looking for dark corners and all. You will be assessing what is exactly in front of you.

For instance, a floor that emits a particular odor could mean that something is terribly wrong with it. It may for instance have absorbed too much dirty water which could be causing the smell. Note down your findings before moving to the next category.

Check existing ceiling and roofing. This can easily be done as you move from room to room. Your main point of concern should be on whether there are signs of leaking. If there are signs, go outside and check the roof from a distance. This way, you should be able to notice any missing shingles.

You will therefore need to leave the house and head outside. While outside, leave some distance between you and the house. This is to make it easier to check all the way to the roof to examine whether there are shingles that are out of place.

While still at a safe distance, observe the general condition of this roof. A roof that looks really old and faded could be a sign that it will need to be replaced as soon as possible. Be sure to note down all the findings that you come across.

A professional inspector will walk around the house as he looks for some crawling space. The crawling space is used to check under the floor boards for any mold signs. Not all properties will have the crawl space as some are constructed using the slab foundation model.

From here, you will need to check your electrical wiring system. Go from room to room as you turn all lights on and off. Note the results.

Wiring tends to be a complicated case as you can never really know what you are dealing with until a professional assessment has been performed. Where the case is severe, the client may end up spending tons of money on having the system rectified. Therefore, make sure you call in the electrician to perform the assessment for you.

Having assessed all the areas, make the decision on whether this property is worth it. If it happens to have too many major problems, move on and find another property to invest in. For minor problems, those can easily be fixed.




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