Sales Inspection Report: Fill & Download for Free

Pay an independent mechanic to do a pre-sale inspection. Any seller who isn’t willing to allow this is nobody you want to do business with.Drive the car yourself. Make sure it looks, smells, and drives to your satisfaction.Ask to see maintenance records.If available, get a Vehicle History Report from Carfax.

Inspection isn’t OptionalInvest in a home inspection report, and never use the inspection service recommended by the real estate agent. Find your own inspector and don’t look for the cheapest. Buying a house is one of the largest purchases you will ever make in your life.In many cases, you will be paying for this purchase for the next twenty to thirty years. So no matter what your financial situation, spend a couple of hundred dollars on a good independent home inspection report from a certified professional.Homes have so many problems and flaws that they are too numerous to list. Many of these will be repaired before the sale, but many others will also be covered up or painted over. From rotted window sills and door jams to mold in the basement that was covered with a coat of paint, you need to know what you're buying. A good home inspector is worth their weight in gold.So why not use the service the helpful real estate agent recommends? First of all, the agent only gets paid if the sale goes through so they have an interest in using someone who will not be quite so thorough. Second, agents establish relationships with inspectors as they recommend the same one over and over generating a lot of the inspectors business. If the inspector finds something that will kill the deal it may not be in their best interest to report it. I’m not saying this would happen, but just in case, hire someone independent, who only works for you.You will generally get a multi-page report listing every flaw from potential termite damage to old water damage to animals in the attic. This will give you an idea of what you are buying and how many of the items should be repaired by the seller before the sale is completed. Some disclosures will add up to thousands of dollars in repairs such as mold problems or a home containing asbestos or lead paint. Why buy someone else's headaches when you could have a clear picture going in on what you are buying.In many cases, you can use the home inspection report to negotiate a lower sale price. “The report says the roof will need to be replaced in the next five years, so I want a reduction in price.”Buying a home without a good home inspection is like buying a used car relying on the word of the salesman, without a test drive. Not a smart move.

A quick anecdote about my first home purchase. My realtor told me, ‘this is the point where I tell all my clients to get an inspection. Except for you, you will know better than any inspector.’I found things that concerned me, figure that into the deal, and got the home. Just to find out that what I thought was rot in the floor, turned out to be structural. For me a simple fix, relatively cheap, and I was done.Being a former contractor, and still in the construction industry, I will tell you to make them repair, or negotiate the price. I would also consult with your lawyer (preferably a real estate lawyer), about wordage in the sale that binds the previous owner in the event that there are more than the obvious items on the list wrong.I have a customer who purchased their home approx a year ago. Their inspectors caught the obvious damage and they negotiated price based on that. What my customer didn't know until engaging my company for the repairs (that needed doing, the known ones) was the amount of the damage that the inspector didn't find, because they are not allowed to do destructive investigations.Basically what should have been at max a 14 day, 40k repair, has turned into a minimum 21 day, 70k plus repair.Make sure you know what you are buying.Cover your backside, or as others have mentioned let the sale go. It would not be worth the hassle, and stress to find out later that you had more issues than initially thought.One last anecdote. I have a client who had two properties they were considering to put up for sale. The inspector went through one, and verbally told my client that it was a structural failure and needed to be leveled. I have worked on this house at various times over the course of 6 plus years, and could attest that there was not any significant structural issue that would have required the leveling of the home.