When your home inspection comes in, it's easy to get completely overwhelmed. There are pages and pages of information about your new home and its many "problems." Most of the time, these are tiny repairs that your home inspector found throughout his or her inspection. Instead of becoming overwhelmed, follow these steps and you'll feel more confident in the home buying process.
Read the Report
Once the home inspection is finished, go through the report and familiarize yourself with what's on it. There may be some things you don't understand or some things you want clarification on. Some of the items may immediately register as unimportant to you (ex. a tiny scratch hidden on a wall).
Figure out What's Immediately Important
As you've gone through the report, you've realized some things that are really important to you and some things that are not. Go ahead and put the unimportant, minute fixes on the "ignore list" and get ready for the big ones!
Talk to Your Home Inspector
The next item on your agenda should be to talk to the home inspector. Find out what he or she would consider major problems and what they would consider minor problems. Create two lists and file the items from the inspection report under major or minor.
Find Out if You Need a Specialist
Next, look through your two lists and find out if you need to call specialists for those particular repairs. You may need to call a plumber, HVAC specialist, electrician or someone else that can help with your major repairs. These specialists can provide you with an estimate of how much it would cost to get this fixed. After that, your real estate agent can help you communicate with the seller to have it fixed before the sale or with a concession.
Create Your To-Do List
Now that your major things are fixed, it's important to create a to-do list for when you move in. This list will include the little things that you can take care of when your new home is purchased and you're all moved in.
This article was inspired by one on Realtor.com.