Roles and Responsibilities of a Home Inspector

A Home Inspector's Role in a Real Estate Transaction

Buying a home is one of the biggest financial decisions most people will make in their lives. Home buyers need to go into the purchase knowing what they are getting into. Missing a major problem in a home can be financially devastating. Most home buyers do not know how to recognize these defects, and neither do REALTORS®.

Home inspectors are responsible for making sure this doesn’t happen. In fact, the home inspection industry was actually created more than 30 years ago because REALTORS® did not want to assume the liability of defects in the home discovered by buyers after the closing. Home inspectors must take seriously the importance of their role in a real estate transaction. They must be capable of recognizing all types of problems on all the various systems and components that make up the home.

Home inspectors are specially trained to recognize the symptoms of defects, and report them to the buyer prior to the closing so they can make an informed decision. They cannot be ‘experts’ on only one or two aspects of construction.  They must be knowledgeable on all the systems and components with the same level of expertise. An inspector must never overstate a problem or the buyer might not buy the home for the wrong reason. Just as good home inspectors should never understate a problem or the buyer may incur a big expense when they move into the house. This is a fine line a home inspector walks and they must be skilled in order to perform this work.

Because a home inspection makes a real estate transaction more difficult, many people assume that the home inspector and the real estate agent are hostile to each other. This presumed adversarial relationship is unfounded and untrue. In fact over 92% of real estate agents recommend a home inspection to their clients. What the real estate industry does not want are untrained and unprofessional home inspectors that cannot be relied upon.