Pre-Purchase Inspections

Before buying a new home most industry experts will encourage potential buyers to invest in pre-purchase inspections. These activities typically involve a trained and licensed inspector visiting the property and carrying out a variety of advanced checks to evaluate the home’s condition. The main purpose of this type of inspection is to ascertain whether there are any causes for concern relating to the structure of a potential home – as well as other factors that might impact its integrity.

Why bother with an inspection?

In the past, countless people opted to purchase homes without having their structural integrity evaluated, only to find themselves facing extensive damage that would have been expensive to repair; not to mention posing potentially life-threatening risks in some cases. This led to the Australian Government issuing a variety of mandatory legislation, much of which related to checking the most common areas of a home that can suffer with issues.

These include:

· Brickwork

· Foundations

· Footing

· Damp proofing

· Plumbing

· Drainage

· Wiring

· Insulation

The above are just a selection of areas that are inspected in order to generate a report and others relate to more specific features within a property; such as roofing, tiles and floorboards. By evaluating the condition of each of these features within a home, a report can be created to provide information to the buyer – which can offer reassurance, as well as an idea relating to the cost of potential repairs.

These days it’s widely advised that a home buyer considers investing in a pre-purchase evaluation, simply for their peace of mind. In the best case scenario there might be no issues whatsoever, so the sale can proceed as intended. If an issue is spotted however, and it’s too big to overcome, the small expense of the inspection will be far more appealing than having to spend potentially tens of thousands of dollars once the building has been bought and becomes the responsibility of the new owner.