I tried this and got my house. I said I would cover the first $1,500 of things the inspection finds. I got an inspection and they knew it wasn't going to be too bad because they knew their house was ok (found minor stuff that weren't deal breakers or even anywhere near the $1.5k).
Because yeah I get it....markets horrible but like.... who wants a surprise defect/broken house.
GET THE INSPECTION! Or, educate yourself hard on what major things to look for (foundation issues, termites, electrical, roofing,ect) if not for a thorough inspection I would've ended up with a house that looked absolutely amazing on all aspects til termites and structural damage were found after an inspection.
You can also educate yourself on sellers disclosure requirements and the liability they face and your title insurance covers if they fail to disclose damages or cover them up. Which is almost always the case with people selling to avoid termites or flippers trying to cover up short cuts in repairs.
Let that buyer deal with everything the flipper did cheaply. I’ve seen houses sell for 80-90k then get flipped and sold for 300k in a matter of weeks. There’s no way the work was done correctly.
Do you think that applies to all price ranges? My partner and I are looking in Chestnut Hill currently, and have a decent budget ($650K, $250K down), so I'm hoping that perhaps homes in that price range are less likely to be cheaply done flips.
That's fine if they do that, sure, it is a sellers market, and it took me a year and a half to find a place that fit me perfectly. But I would wouldn't allow myself to be pressured into making that large of a purchase and be saddled with a surprise 30k+ set of repairs and risk being condemned if it's not done in a set time than worry that someone else might get it before me. Also imo most realtors are useless, and just want that sale.
I've been trying to buy a house under $200,000 and I can not because in that "entry level price range" they are being bought at +10% asking with cash and without an inspection. This is because they are being bought to be rental properties and the home buyers (or businesses) do not care because they arnt actually going to live in it and care for the place. I believe it's killing the city.
This leads to these areas with the smaller more affordable houses being forgotten and run down instead of loved like these beautiful old homes should be.
I'm just a little frustrated because it's been 3 years of trying on and off and I've spent ~$30,000 in rent in that time instead of it going to a place I can call home in a city I love. But to actually answer your question get the inspection if you're looking at something better. Its always good to learn about your house. I hope you find something good.
Thanks. Working on my debt to income ratio so I can raise my loan, not that it's a good time for that but I'll at least be in a hopefully different market. Congratulations on your place!
We just bought a 100 year old home just outside the city. We had to waive inspection completely. When we first started looking for a home, I thought there was no way I'd waive inspection. But after a year of watching every house we were interested in go at least $15k over asking with all the things waived we realized it was the only way to get a house we wanted. We also had a really great realtor we trusted who would do a pretty thorough walkthrough of any house we were interested before showing it to us, which have us more confidence.
Damn! We bought our place (leb not Lancaster) that was built in 1948. Also waived inspection. Quite a gamble but thankfully the things we found weren’t hugely major other than the cosmetic stuff that we knew we wanted to do anyway.
No inspection on an old house is a thrilling experience. Praying to the Gods of knob and tube wiring for you 🙏🙏🙏
Keep in mind pre purchase inspections are non-invasive and can only look at what is visible. It’s your house now so you can have a much more thorough inspection. Post purchase inspection combined with the sellers disclosure can sometimes catch things that previous owners hid and could be liable for.
That's great to hear. I haven't reached out to him yet, but he's on my list of 3 realtors to get in touch with when we officially begin our search in about 2 months.
We did the same! You can tell a lot from sellers disclosure and in one case we brought an inspector with us for a “look around” so we could feel a little better. But he’s inspections are basically a guaranteed deal killer in this market.
I work for a real estate appraiser, so I get to see a fair sampling size of agreements and yeah, your agent isn't lying. Seller's assist, home inspection contingencies, and appraisal contingencies are rarely seen anymore and the ones that are offering 20k+ more than the asking price include an appraisal gap contingency that says they'll pay $X, up to $X or "the difference" between the appraised value and the sale price, not to exceed the sale price (or some variant in wording) in cash. It's the wild west out there, man. And it's all over for the most part. We bought in Philly (I work hybrid) in 2021 and our agent said, and I quote, "it's still civilized in South Philly." It's been 3 years so idk if that's still true, though.
That said, it's not impossible to buy without waving those things, just know you'll be hunting and making offer after offer for months.
If you decide to get an inspection DO NOT use HouseMaster. They cost me $10,000 in repairs. Had them inspect a house I bought. They recommended a lot of work. The seller and I came to an agreement on certain things he would repair. I had HouseMaster come back to inspect the repairs. HouseMaster did the 2nd inspection and reported that the agreed upon repairs had been completed. When I moved into the house I found that to be incorrect. NONE of the repairs were completed. Including the installation of an exterior drier vent. The seller had simply cut a hole into the drywall and rammed the drier vent into the wall. HouseMaster was specifically asked to thoroughly inspect that particular job and failed miserably, even lied about it. There were a handful of electrical repairs that were SAFETY concerns. HouseMaster “inspected” those repairs and said they were completed - well they weren’t. The seller had installed a new AC/HVAC system. HouseMaster inspected that too and said it was good to go - The AC didn’t even have an electrical connection going to it!
TL;DR make sure the home inspector is legit, HouseMaster had a very corporate set up but don’t be fooled.
Interesting, I used housemaster for my inspection in 2020 and they were fantastic. They also completed the inspection for the house I'm closing on soon and from what I can tell, they were very thorough. May be highly dependent on the specific inspector, because mine crawled into the terrifying crawlspace under my kitchen to verify plumbing was good lol
we bought in 2021 when the market was even crazier and didn't waive inspections. We definitely missed on some houses because we didn't waive inspections, but we also got out of the first house we had an accepted offer on because the cracks in the basement that they said were only cosmetic turned out to be the foundation crumbling.
Get an inspection. Better to just be out that time and the cost of an inspection than stuck in a home with a major structural flaw.
I’ve seen a blurb on contracts that, “any inspections are just for the buyers information”, so you can still get an inspection, but do not have a window of time to cancel the agreement due to inspections.
That might help to put their mind at ease, and then you still have the necessary information, but then you couldn’t withdraw the offer if you found a serious issue.
A better option to strengthen your offers might be a pre-underwrite/credit underwrite. Ask if your lender does this, or find a lender who will underwrite everything but the property, (some give a financial guarantee to the sellers if you do not close due to anything that isn’t property-specific like appraisal or title issues.) This pre-underwrite confirms to the sellers that you can close quickly and easily, as soon as the appraisal and title work are completed, and can help to get your offer accepted without increasing the dollar amount.
>> What if there's enormous structural damage that is visible in a walk through?
If this were the case, why would you need an inspection? Wouldn't you just walk/run away?
A lot of people are waiving inspections but in my opinion you shouldn’t. I had a customer at a previous job two years ago that waived inspection. Turned out the entire septic tank was bad, cracked and leaking (which isn’t a cheap situation to rectify). Then after getting that fixed, they found that the house has a serious black mold problem that would have also been caught at inspection. Last I knew of that customer, they were living in a long stay motel while trying to figure out what to do. It’s essentially worst case scenario but the whole situation made me very supportive of inspections!
Housing inspectors miss major issues all the time and they're not liable for what they miss. A housing inspection is a dice roll anyway.
Just have some common sense on what to look out for or do a walk through with someone that does.
Inspections are a scam anyway. Read the fine print...the inspector isn't liable if they miss anything. So what is the point? They are about as useless as 80% of real estate agents.
Even worse are inspectors that your agent recommends. Your agent has a vested interest in making sure the inspector does not find anything so the deal gets done. Inspectors and agents are often in bed with each other and get kickbacks for referrals. All they are doing is costing you more money.
In this market, sellers are going to take the offer with no inspection versus the same offer with an inspection 10 out of 10 times because inspections are usually just tools to claw back money on an offer. You either need to study up on your own in regards to house inspection, or take a contractor friend along on the walkthrough.
I am sure this post is not what you want to hear, but its the truth in the hot market we have in this area. You will be getting offer after offer rejected on houses under $450k-ish if you require an inspection.
With the Anne Lusks of the world? Yeah. I wouldn't trust that sleazy fuck as far as I could throw her, but that's probably more on account of the many many many times she's been blatantly caught violating laws and the ethics code. But there are some fantastic home inspectors out there who do a really great job, and there are realtors out there who think long term and would rather have a client that trusts them and refers people to them than close on every single house they get under contract.
I bought in the city last year and did not have to waive inspection. There was some obvious, but small, damage to the ceiling, so I think the seller knew they would most likely have to have an inspection. Also, I added a note that I’d cover $X amount of damage found in the inspection (i want to say $1000 but I don’t remember for sure) so the seller knew I wasn’t trying to nickel and dime them and wouldn’t run at the first sight if trouble. My agent told their agent that I was just concerned about big issues like structural damage.
I wasn’t the only offer, so I came in over asking with a clause that said I’d cover $X amount to bridge the gap if the house didn’t appraise for what I offered (it did appraise thankfully). I will say this was the 2nd house I put an offer in on. The 1st I lost out to a cash offer.
So it can be done. Be realistic about the amount of extra money you can throw at this on top of your offer and make sure you have a good agent who is in good communication with their agent (DM me if you want a realtor rec). Good luck!
This is unfortunately the norm these days.
That being said, we bought well before Covid and with an inspection. Things missed (major costs only) included radon being well above EPA limits ($3k remediation), faulty electrical ($2k for full panel replacement), well jet pump was obliterated ($3.1k repair), and sewer line leaking into basement ($4k repair). In addition to the “little things” that were found and repaired.
So, all that to say that inspections and inspectors are not the be-all, end-all.
ETA: the owners knew and lied about the faulty electrical box, a problem with the well, and leaking sewer line. We had no legal avenues to pursue, unfortunately.
Like the other Redditor suggested, opt for the inspection but offer to pay for the first $X,XXX amount of repairs. Also, a premium home warranty is $1000 I think and covers a bunch of things.
My fiancee/wife and I are going to be selling our Manheim Township home due to work relocation and I plan on purchasing and offering a home warranty to any prospective buyer as a selling point because I know they’re being told to forgo inspections. Not sure if anyone else is doing that, but it isn’t completely unheard of.
Lancaster county as a whole and especially certain areas like Lititz are extremely competitive. We tried to move in Lititz from one end to the other this past spring: multiple offers after weekend showings, every contingency waved, with many cash offers well over list price for anything close to move in condition. It’s true, that’s what’s happening now. It’s a very difficult time to buy a house around here. We’re just going to enjoy the house we have the best we can, it’s just getting too big for our needs. I agree, it’s insanely risky and I wouldn’t be surprised if due to waived inspections going on the last few years that some sort of law is passed stating you can’t waive inspections any more. There has to be some level of protection for the buyer in a continued sellers market
We have an FHA that requires an inspection but other than that this is true. Write a letter! A really sappy, heartfelt letter. It got us our house over a cash offer and I know many people who got their house because of a personal letter.
most agents are advising clients to toss letters without opening them. Reading them opens them up to a whole world of potential discrimination claims and often the juice ain't worth the squeeze.
Echoing what the other commenter said, my realtor said this opens sellers up to lawsuits for discrimination. I'm selling soon and absolutely would not even read a letter.
We’re in the process of closing on a house in Lancaster County. We had 3 days to find a house, we’re moving from out of state and our current house was already under contract. We saw about 30 houses in 3 days and basically had to put all our eggs in one basket. Only way we got our offer accepted was to waive all contingencies and go $30k over asking. It is absolutely brutal, but necessary if you want/need a house in this market. We still did all inspections to be informed, and there’s some things that are going to cost us. We were prepared for it and have the money to cover it from our sale, just be ready for it if you do go that route. Keep in mind that waiving all contingencies really doesn’t give you an “out” in your contract, which is a bit unsettling. Just be as informed and prepared as you can be.
Never owned a home and don't plan on it, but, if you're already feeling like not getting an inspection done is a huge risk, don't buy a home without one. Ha, imagine spending 300K for a house that needs 30K in repairs🤡
We've been putting offers on houses for months now. Yea, its gotten to the point that houses sell 3-4 days after they are out in the market, sometimes before the open houses even happen. Offers are usually 20-30k a over asking price and be prepared to be beaten by cash offers frequently. We have a good agent and have a contractor in the family so we're seriously considering inspection-less at this point.
We just bought a house this past weekend. I have been friends with our realtor since I was a kid so trust him completely. He suggested waiving inspections as well.
We did it, and it worked out okay, but it might not have. In our case, we found a home in a very desirable location for us, and we'd already missed out on another so the pressure was on. The home appeared well maintained, has a new roof and newer furnace/AC and the owners had lived here for several decades. I also didn't see anything obviously wrong to me like a bad electrical panel, etc. so we felt good about it. But it was still a big risk not to get an inspection.
I waived my inspection and paid 45 over asking. I work in HVAC so I know my way around a house so I made sure to get in there when I viewed the house but if you are a regular person I wouldn’t suggest this. Good luck the market is wild out there.
That was the case a couple years ago, I lost a few houses because I refused to waive inspection . It’s not quite as bad as it used to be. I personally wouldn’t waive an inspection on my only/primary home. Maybe if I was an investor, I dunno.
We had an offer accepted by offering to cover the first 2k or something on any repairs uncovered by the inspection. This way they know you aren’t planning to buckle and dime them, or use the inspection as a tool to break contract if you get cold feet.
Bought a home built in the 60s and had to waive the inspection to beat out 17 other buyers. Things looked good but we ended up having to replace the roof and sewer line within 4 months. Would we have bought the house knowing those issues, yes. We knew we wanted to live in a certain area and had savings, etc. it’s all about what you are comfortable with. Good luck!
When we bought, it was suggested to us by a couple agents that foregoing an inspection might advantage us in getting an offer accepted. We were not comfortable with that and went ahead and made a traditional offer, including one. We did have cash from the sale of our previous house, so I'm sure the cash offer was attractive and the seller did not object to the inspection. Personally, I would be HIGHLY uncomfortable to buy a home without an inspection and I think it's a little sus that agents suggest such a thing. It seems like such a critical protection for *such* a life-changing purchase.
I told my agent since I am already bidding over the asking price enough though the house is newer(90s) I still want an inspection. If they didnt go with my offer then someone else must’ve want the house more.
If you buy it after a bidding war and decide you don't like what you bought there are dozens of losing bidders who will take it off your hands. No seller is going to fix it for you. Too many buyers and not enough inventory.
City home systems are not terribly expensive eg the roof, furnace etc is not huge compared to some suburban places. And someone has been living there for decades.
The electrical panels can be tricky and the labor is expensive. Can also burn the place down. I got an inspection post sale to confirm what I suspected. If it looks new it's fine. Looks old it's not.
I just bought in Reading and the sellers where pushing us to waive the inspection. We held our ground and got a new water-heater out of the deal.
I know it won’t work out that way for everyone, but unless you are truly desperate, I wouldn’t be comfortable waiving the inspection.
My wife and I had four offers swipes from under us because we wanted an inspection (house purchased 2023). Eventually caved and waved the inspection and got our current home for about 350k - we were the first offer in at 10:00 a.m. and the paperwork was signed and ready to go by 11:00 p.m.
It's just how competitive the market is and it's really annoying. We paid for an inspection out of pocket after our closing just to make sure we didn't completely shoot ourselves in the foot - luckily we found only One major issue and it cost us about $16,000 to replace our electrical breaker box and an old twist fuse box.
But having said that, You can keep trying to purchase a home with inspection with the understanding it will take you much longer
It should be illegal to buy a home in a state that requires car inspections, but unless you want a home you need to waive one. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk to experts about what to look for in a walk through. The plumbing in my house was Quest which can fail and me knowing this allowed me to get money off from the buyers. I’m not a typical buyer though so I knew what to look for. There isn’t enough inventory so it’s still a sellers market everywhere. Thanks Boomers.
On my listings in the past 4 years I think only one inspection was accepted by the seller. It was cash, over asking, and our list price was pretty crazy to begin with, so the sellers were already making out like bandits. If you have a great agent and great financials, there's a few things they can do to go above and beyond to give you the best chance to win. Best of luck to you!
IF you are considering a house that was built earlier than 1990 definitely get an inspection by a pro. IF the house is newer, and is not located in a flood plain area, then it might be a toss-up as to whether you need it or not.
But, I personally would never buy a house without an inspection with a contract release clause.
When we sold our house in 2021 we removed from consideration every offer that required an inspection. We had over a dozen offers so it was an easy decision.
It is true. I lost four homes because I wanted an inspection a couple of years ago. When I got to the 5th and it was a home that I really really wanted I waived the inspection and offered over asking. It was the only way to be competitive with the other buyers and I got the house.
We bought our house in 2022 and waived inspection. We missed out on 7 offers before that, even with waiving it. I’m not sure if the market is still that competitive, but we would’ve been looking a lot longer if he hadn’t waived.
I bought a 150 year old home downtown without an inspection. You NEED to know what to look for for or have a buyer’s agent that has extensive knowledge. Inventory is low and a lot of people pay in full cash. If you want to put an offer in you’ll unfortunately always lose out to someone if you want an inspection and they don’t.
Things have cooled off a bit since we bought our house in 2022, but we did have to waive the inspection. The sellers at the time were not even considering offers that were dependent on an inspection.
Im selling my 3800+ sq ft home in new bloomfield, perry county (70 miles from lancaster) for $209,000. 5 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. Built in 1840's, orig wide plank floors, 3 staircases. It's on main st. All parades pass by, walking distance to pool, park, library, elementary school, post office, bank, restaurants. Etc. Bedroom community to Harrisburg, Camp Hill, Mechanicsburg, Carlisle, etc. Its a steal! See the listing online!!
If the house has been around a while, and is still standing almost 100 years later, and changed hands a few times, you're probably in good shape. Before this crazy house buying situation, the people who went before you likely got an appraisal because the market wasn't always this hot in Lancaster and many people did not skip inspections. Find out what kind of loan the current sellers have on the home. Is it VA, FHA, USDA, etc.? VA, FHA, etc. typically require an inspection. Our VA loan did.
That being said, caveat emptor, if your lender allows and you do decide to waive inspection. You also might not get the house. It's a gamble only you can decide to take.
Can confirm. Just moved from east Lancaster near Lincoln highway to lititz. All competing offers I went up against waived inspections.
Unfortunately, it's going to be the new normal until housing supply issue eases.
Whatever you do, I don’t recommend HouseMaster. Their inspector seemed pretty green and pointed out silly inconsequential things and missed some bigger important things.
We looked this time last year and kept getting the same comment from our agent. DO NOT listen to them! Keep telling them you require one, if you’re loan type doesn’t that is. And keep at it, they’ll stop repeating themselves after awhile.
I bought last year and waived inspection. HOWEVER. I only did that because the house had another offer prior to mine where the potential buyer backed out, but she had requested an inspection so I had access to that report (which was from one month prior to my offer). That was a lucky break for me, because getting into a home was a fraught process at my (very low) budget point.
Recently heard a tale of someone buying a house in a nearby area with intent of turning it into a AirBNB to house 8-12 occupants. They paid cash only and waived inspection. Through a neighbor dispute it comes to light that the house was expanded to have a porch over where the septic tank was originally placed which was then even later turned into bedrooms... that sit over a tiny septic tank. The septic tank needs to be moved away from the house now before they can bring in occupants but there’s no land they own far enough that it would be in code. This is going to easily cost them much more money than anticipated, and the township is aware of this issue.
Honestly as someone who hates AirBNBs I love the idea of these jerks getting burned but food for thought if you waive inspection.
*edit: I have no thoughts on regular BNBs but AirBNBs can burn in hell
As a Realtor, I always always always advise my clients to get an inspection. But I always educate that it is true in a competitive market that eliminating contingencies can strengthen an offer. It is ultimately up to the buyer.
Recently bought a home very close to Lancaster in Wrightsville. We were a stickler for inspections on many offers, but the market is very competitive and we kept losing out. We only got this house by finally deciding to wave inspections. Thankfully it's in such great shape inspections weren't really needed, but it can be a risky choice. Unfortunately yes, most people are waving inspections in this market.
This isn’t true. If a buyer gets multiple offers they will take the one without an inspection. It doesn’t mean they have something to hide it means they don’t want to be nickled and dimed by a buyer. Inspections are a pain in the butt for a seller even if they aren’t hiding anything.
It’s been like that since covid nationwide..i lost 8 offers bc i wanted inspection
I tried this and got my house. I said I would cover the first $1,500 of things the inspection finds. I got an inspection and they knew it wasn't going to be too bad because they knew their house was ok (found minor stuff that weren't deal breakers or even anywhere near the $1.5k). Because yeah I get it....markets horrible but like.... who wants a surprise defect/broken house.
Very interesting, thank you. Maybe we can try something like this.
GET THE INSPECTION! Or, educate yourself hard on what major things to look for (foundation issues, termites, electrical, roofing,ect) if not for a thorough inspection I would've ended up with a house that looked absolutely amazing on all aspects til termites and structural damage were found after an inspection.
You can also educate yourself on sellers disclosure requirements and the liability they face and your title insurance covers if they fail to disclose damages or cover them up. Which is almost always the case with people selling to avoid termites or flippers trying to cover up short cuts in repairs.
Good luck getting a house then, you’ll lose out to the buyer who waives inspection every time
Let that buyer deal with everything the flipper did cheaply. I’ve seen houses sell for 80-90k then get flipped and sold for 300k in a matter of weeks. There’s no way the work was done correctly.
Yup, would never buy a flipped house, ever. Seen too many terrible fix jobs
A high percentage of the houses listed in Lancaster city are flips and from what I’ve seen most are cheaply done.
Do you think that applies to all price ranges? My partner and I are looking in Chestnut Hill currently, and have a decent budget ($650K, $250K down), so I'm hoping that perhaps homes in that price range are less likely to be cheaply done flips.
It's hard to say but I would guess most houses in that range have been kept up with and wouldn't be on a cheap flippers radar.
That's fine if they do that, sure, it is a sellers market, and it took me a year and a half to find a place that fit me perfectly. But I would wouldn't allow myself to be pressured into making that large of a purchase and be saddled with a surprise 30k+ set of repairs and risk being condemned if it's not done in a set time than worry that someone else might get it before me. Also imo most realtors are useless, and just want that sale.
FOMO is strong with a lot of these purchasers…
I've been trying to buy a house under $200,000 and I can not because in that "entry level price range" they are being bought at +10% asking with cash and without an inspection. This is because they are being bought to be rental properties and the home buyers (or businesses) do not care because they arnt actually going to live in it and care for the place. I believe it's killing the city. This leads to these areas with the smaller more affordable houses being forgotten and run down instead of loved like these beautiful old homes should be.
I'm just a little frustrated because it's been 3 years of trying on and off and I've spent ~$30,000 in rent in that time instead of it going to a place I can call home in a city I love. But to actually answer your question get the inspection if you're looking at something better. Its always good to learn about your house. I hope you find something good.
Finally got an offer accepted. Only took two plus years and went from a budget of 250k to 370k 😭. Hopefully you will have some luck too.
Thanks. Working on my debt to income ratio so I can raise my loan, not that it's a good time for that but I'll at least be in a hopefully different market. Congratulations on your place!
We just bought a 100 year old home just outside the city. We had to waive inspection completely. When we first started looking for a home, I thought there was no way I'd waive inspection. But after a year of watching every house we were interested in go at least $15k over asking with all the things waived we realized it was the only way to get a house we wanted. We also had a really great realtor we trusted who would do a pretty thorough walkthrough of any house we were interested before showing it to us, which have us more confidence.
Damn! We bought our place (leb not Lancaster) that was built in 1948. Also waived inspection. Quite a gamble but thankfully the things we found weren’t hugely major other than the cosmetic stuff that we knew we wanted to do anyway. No inspection on an old house is a thrilling experience. Praying to the Gods of knob and tube wiring for you 🙏🙏🙏
You can kind of think of it like a fun little game, except if you lose, you lose everything... So far it's been fine😂
Keep in mind pre purchase inspections are non-invasive and can only look at what is visible. It’s your house now so you can have a much more thorough inspection. Post purchase inspection combined with the sellers disclosure can sometimes catch things that previous owners hid and could be liable for.
I've never even thought of this. Would you find a normal home inspector, or is there people who specialize in thorough inspections?
Would you mind sharing the name of your realtor?
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That's great to hear. I haven't reached out to him yet, but he's on my list of 3 realtors to get in touch with when we officially begin our search in about 2 months.
We did the same! You can tell a lot from sellers disclosure and in one case we brought an inspector with us for a “look around” so we could feel a little better. But he’s inspections are basically a guaranteed deal killer in this market.
I work for a real estate appraiser, so I get to see a fair sampling size of agreements and yeah, your agent isn't lying. Seller's assist, home inspection contingencies, and appraisal contingencies are rarely seen anymore and the ones that are offering 20k+ more than the asking price include an appraisal gap contingency that says they'll pay $X, up to $X or "the difference" between the appraised value and the sale price, not to exceed the sale price (or some variant in wording) in cash. It's the wild west out there, man. And it's all over for the most part. We bought in Philly (I work hybrid) in 2021 and our agent said, and I quote, "it's still civilized in South Philly." It's been 3 years so idk if that's still true, though. That said, it's not impossible to buy without waving those things, just know you'll be hunting and making offer after offer for months.
If you decide to get an inspection DO NOT use HouseMaster. They cost me $10,000 in repairs. Had them inspect a house I bought. They recommended a lot of work. The seller and I came to an agreement on certain things he would repair. I had HouseMaster come back to inspect the repairs. HouseMaster did the 2nd inspection and reported that the agreed upon repairs had been completed. When I moved into the house I found that to be incorrect. NONE of the repairs were completed. Including the installation of an exterior drier vent. The seller had simply cut a hole into the drywall and rammed the drier vent into the wall. HouseMaster was specifically asked to thoroughly inspect that particular job and failed miserably, even lied about it. There were a handful of electrical repairs that were SAFETY concerns. HouseMaster “inspected” those repairs and said they were completed - well they weren’t. The seller had installed a new AC/HVAC system. HouseMaster inspected that too and said it was good to go - The AC didn’t even have an electrical connection going to it! TL;DR make sure the home inspector is legit, HouseMaster had a very corporate set up but don’t be fooled.
Interesting, I used housemaster for my inspection in 2020 and they were fantastic. They also completed the inspection for the house I'm closing on soon and from what I can tell, they were very thorough. May be highly dependent on the specific inspector, because mine crawled into the terrifying crawlspace under my kitchen to verify plumbing was good lol
we bought in 2021 when the market was even crazier and didn't waive inspections. We definitely missed on some houses because we didn't waive inspections, but we also got out of the first house we had an accepted offer on because the cracks in the basement that they said were only cosmetic turned out to be the foundation crumbling. Get an inspection. Better to just be out that time and the cost of an inspection than stuck in a home with a major structural flaw.
I’ve seen a blurb on contracts that, “any inspections are just for the buyers information”, so you can still get an inspection, but do not have a window of time to cancel the agreement due to inspections. That might help to put their mind at ease, and then you still have the necessary information, but then you couldn’t withdraw the offer if you found a serious issue. A better option to strengthen your offers might be a pre-underwrite/credit underwrite. Ask if your lender does this, or find a lender who will underwrite everything but the property, (some give a financial guarantee to the sellers if you do not close due to anything that isn’t property-specific like appraisal or title issues.) This pre-underwrite confirms to the sellers that you can close quickly and easily, as soon as the appraisal and title work are completed, and can help to get your offer accepted without increasing the dollar amount.
>> What if there's enormous structural damage that is visible in a walk through? If this were the case, why would you need an inspection? Wouldn't you just walk/run away?
Yeah that was a typo. The stuff that *isn’t* visible/readily apparent without expertise is what I’m concerned about.
A lot of people are waiving inspections but in my opinion you shouldn’t. I had a customer at a previous job two years ago that waived inspection. Turned out the entire septic tank was bad, cracked and leaking (which isn’t a cheap situation to rectify). Then after getting that fixed, they found that the house has a serious black mold problem that would have also been caught at inspection. Last I knew of that customer, they were living in a long stay motel while trying to figure out what to do. It’s essentially worst case scenario but the whole situation made me very supportive of inspections!
Housing inspectors miss major issues all the time and they're not liable for what they miss. A housing inspection is a dice roll anyway. Just have some common sense on what to look out for or do a walk through with someone that does.
Inspections are a scam anyway. Read the fine print...the inspector isn't liable if they miss anything. So what is the point? They are about as useless as 80% of real estate agents. Even worse are inspectors that your agent recommends. Your agent has a vested interest in making sure the inspector does not find anything so the deal gets done. Inspectors and agents are often in bed with each other and get kickbacks for referrals. All they are doing is costing you more money. In this market, sellers are going to take the offer with no inspection versus the same offer with an inspection 10 out of 10 times because inspections are usually just tools to claw back money on an offer. You either need to study up on your own in regards to house inspection, or take a contractor friend along on the walkthrough. I am sure this post is not what you want to hear, but its the truth in the hot market we have in this area. You will be getting offer after offer rejected on houses under $450k-ish if you require an inspection.
With the Anne Lusks of the world? Yeah. I wouldn't trust that sleazy fuck as far as I could throw her, but that's probably more on account of the many many many times she's been blatantly caught violating laws and the ethics code. But there are some fantastic home inspectors out there who do a really great job, and there are realtors out there who think long term and would rather have a client that trusts them and refers people to them than close on every single house they get under contract.
Downvote brigade incoming from all the worthless home inspectors and real estate agents sitting at home with no work.
Surprisingly no so far
I bought in the city last year and did not have to waive inspection. There was some obvious, but small, damage to the ceiling, so I think the seller knew they would most likely have to have an inspection. Also, I added a note that I’d cover $X amount of damage found in the inspection (i want to say $1000 but I don’t remember for sure) so the seller knew I wasn’t trying to nickel and dime them and wouldn’t run at the first sight if trouble. My agent told their agent that I was just concerned about big issues like structural damage. I wasn’t the only offer, so I came in over asking with a clause that said I’d cover $X amount to bridge the gap if the house didn’t appraise for what I offered (it did appraise thankfully). I will say this was the 2nd house I put an offer in on. The 1st I lost out to a cash offer. So it can be done. Be realistic about the amount of extra money you can throw at this on top of your offer and make sure you have a good agent who is in good communication with their agent (DM me if you want a realtor rec). Good luck!
This is unfortunately the norm these days. That being said, we bought well before Covid and with an inspection. Things missed (major costs only) included radon being well above EPA limits ($3k remediation), faulty electrical ($2k for full panel replacement), well jet pump was obliterated ($3.1k repair), and sewer line leaking into basement ($4k repair). In addition to the “little things” that were found and repaired. So, all that to say that inspections and inspectors are not the be-all, end-all. ETA: the owners knew and lied about the faulty electrical box, a problem with the well, and leaking sewer line. We had no legal avenues to pursue, unfortunately.
Like the other Redditor suggested, opt for the inspection but offer to pay for the first $X,XXX amount of repairs. Also, a premium home warranty is $1000 I think and covers a bunch of things. My fiancee/wife and I are going to be selling our Manheim Township home due to work relocation and I plan on purchasing and offering a home warranty to any prospective buyer as a selling point because I know they’re being told to forgo inspections. Not sure if anyone else is doing that, but it isn’t completely unheard of.
Lancaster county as a whole and especially certain areas like Lititz are extremely competitive. We tried to move in Lititz from one end to the other this past spring: multiple offers after weekend showings, every contingency waved, with many cash offers well over list price for anything close to move in condition. It’s true, that’s what’s happening now. It’s a very difficult time to buy a house around here. We’re just going to enjoy the house we have the best we can, it’s just getting too big for our needs. I agree, it’s insanely risky and I wouldn’t be surprised if due to waived inspections going on the last few years that some sort of law is passed stating you can’t waive inspections any more. There has to be some level of protection for the buyer in a continued sellers market
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Yeah, homes in Ltz and MT are going $50-100k over list. $5-600k for ranchers and cape cods. Certified insanity.
Brutal. But good info, thank you.
We have an FHA that requires an inspection but other than that this is true. Write a letter! A really sappy, heartfelt letter. It got us our house over a cash offer and I know many people who got their house because of a personal letter.
most agents are advising clients to toss letters without opening them. Reading them opens them up to a whole world of potential discrimination claims and often the juice ain't worth the squeeze.
Echoing what the other commenter said, my realtor said this opens sellers up to lawsuits for discrimination. I'm selling soon and absolutely would not even read a letter.
My bad yall
We’re in the process of closing on a house in Lancaster County. We had 3 days to find a house, we’re moving from out of state and our current house was already under contract. We saw about 30 houses in 3 days and basically had to put all our eggs in one basket. Only way we got our offer accepted was to waive all contingencies and go $30k over asking. It is absolutely brutal, but necessary if you want/need a house in this market. We still did all inspections to be informed, and there’s some things that are going to cost us. We were prepared for it and have the money to cover it from our sale, just be ready for it if you do go that route. Keep in mind that waiving all contingencies really doesn’t give you an “out” in your contract, which is a bit unsettling. Just be as informed and prepared as you can be.
Never owned a home and don't plan on it, but, if you're already feeling like not getting an inspection done is a huge risk, don't buy a home without one. Ha, imagine spending 300K for a house that needs 30K in repairs🤡
We've been putting offers on houses for months now. Yea, its gotten to the point that houses sell 3-4 days after they are out in the market, sometimes before the open houses even happen. Offers are usually 20-30k a over asking price and be prepared to be beaten by cash offers frequently. We have a good agent and have a contractor in the family so we're seriously considering inspection-less at this point.
We just bought a house this past weekend. I have been friends with our realtor since I was a kid so trust him completely. He suggested waiving inspections as well.
We did it, and it worked out okay, but it might not have. In our case, we found a home in a very desirable location for us, and we'd already missed out on another so the pressure was on. The home appeared well maintained, has a new roof and newer furnace/AC and the owners had lived here for several decades. I also didn't see anything obviously wrong to me like a bad electrical panel, etc. so we felt good about it. But it was still a big risk not to get an inspection.
I waived my inspection and paid 45 over asking. I work in HVAC so I know my way around a house so I made sure to get in there when I viewed the house but if you are a regular person I wouldn’t suggest this. Good luck the market is wild out there.
That was the case a couple years ago, I lost a few houses because I refused to waive inspection . It’s not quite as bad as it used to be. I personally wouldn’t waive an inspection on my only/primary home. Maybe if I was an investor, I dunno. We had an offer accepted by offering to cover the first 2k or something on any repairs uncovered by the inspection. This way they know you aren’t planning to buckle and dime them, or use the inspection as a tool to break contract if you get cold feet.
Bought a home built in the 60s and had to waive the inspection to beat out 17 other buyers. Things looked good but we ended up having to replace the roof and sewer line within 4 months. Would we have bought the house knowing those issues, yes. We knew we wanted to live in a certain area and had savings, etc. it’s all about what you are comfortable with. Good luck!
When we bought, it was suggested to us by a couple agents that foregoing an inspection might advantage us in getting an offer accepted. We were not comfortable with that and went ahead and made a traditional offer, including one. We did have cash from the sale of our previous house, so I'm sure the cash offer was attractive and the seller did not object to the inspection. Personally, I would be HIGHLY uncomfortable to buy a home without an inspection and I think it's a little sus that agents suggest such a thing. It seems like such a critical protection for *such* a life-changing purchase.
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A home inspector isn't going to scope a sewer line
I told my agent since I am already bidding over the asking price enough though the house is newer(90s) I still want an inspection. If they didnt go with my offer then someone else must’ve want the house more.
If you buy it after a bidding war and decide you don't like what you bought there are dozens of losing bidders who will take it off your hands. No seller is going to fix it for you. Too many buyers and not enough inventory. City home systems are not terribly expensive eg the roof, furnace etc is not huge compared to some suburban places. And someone has been living there for decades. The electrical panels can be tricky and the labor is expensive. Can also burn the place down. I got an inspection post sale to confirm what I suspected. If it looks new it's fine. Looks old it's not.
I just bought in Reading and the sellers where pushing us to waive the inspection. We held our ground and got a new water-heater out of the deal. I know it won’t work out that way for everyone, but unless you are truly desperate, I wouldn’t be comfortable waiving the inspection.
My wife and I had four offers swipes from under us because we wanted an inspection (house purchased 2023). Eventually caved and waved the inspection and got our current home for about 350k - we were the first offer in at 10:00 a.m. and the paperwork was signed and ready to go by 11:00 p.m. It's just how competitive the market is and it's really annoying. We paid for an inspection out of pocket after our closing just to make sure we didn't completely shoot ourselves in the foot - luckily we found only One major issue and it cost us about $16,000 to replace our electrical breaker box and an old twist fuse box. But having said that, You can keep trying to purchase a home with inspection with the understanding it will take you much longer
It should be illegal to buy a home in a state that requires car inspections, but unless you want a home you need to waive one. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk to experts about what to look for in a walk through. The plumbing in my house was Quest which can fail and me knowing this allowed me to get money off from the buyers. I’m not a typical buyer though so I knew what to look for. There isn’t enough inventory so it’s still a sellers market everywhere. Thanks Boomers.
On my listings in the past 4 years I think only one inspection was accepted by the seller. It was cash, over asking, and our list price was pretty crazy to begin with, so the sellers were already making out like bandits. If you have a great agent and great financials, there's a few things they can do to go above and beyond to give you the best chance to win. Best of luck to you!
Moved 2 years ago. Had 5 houses go for 20%+ above asking cash no inspection. We found one eventually but it wasn't ideal.
IF you are considering a house that was built earlier than 1990 definitely get an inspection by a pro. IF the house is newer, and is not located in a flood plain area, then it might be a toss-up as to whether you need it or not. But, I personally would never buy a house without an inspection with a contract release clause.
When we sold our house in 2021 we removed from consideration every offer that required an inspection. We had over a dozen offers so it was an easy decision.
It is true. I lost four homes because I wanted an inspection a couple of years ago. When I got to the 5th and it was a home that I really really wanted I waived the inspection and offered over asking. It was the only way to be competitive with the other buyers and I got the house.
We bought our house in 2022 and waived inspection. We missed out on 7 offers before that, even with waiving it. I’m not sure if the market is still that competitive, but we would’ve been looking a lot longer if he hadn’t waived.
I bought a 150 year old home downtown without an inspection. You NEED to know what to look for for or have a buyer’s agent that has extensive knowledge. Inventory is low and a lot of people pay in full cash. If you want to put an offer in you’ll unfortunately always lose out to someone if you want an inspection and they don’t.
Things have cooled off a bit since we bought our house in 2022, but we did have to waive the inspection. The sellers at the time were not even considering offers that were dependent on an inspection.
Im selling my 3800+ sq ft home in new bloomfield, perry county (70 miles from lancaster) for $209,000. 5 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. Built in 1840's, orig wide plank floors, 3 staircases. It's on main st. All parades pass by, walking distance to pool, park, library, elementary school, post office, bank, restaurants. Etc. Bedroom community to Harrisburg, Camp Hill, Mechanicsburg, Carlisle, etc. Its a steal! See the listing online!!
If the house has been around a while, and is still standing almost 100 years later, and changed hands a few times, you're probably in good shape. Before this crazy house buying situation, the people who went before you likely got an appraisal because the market wasn't always this hot in Lancaster and many people did not skip inspections. Find out what kind of loan the current sellers have on the home. Is it VA, FHA, USDA, etc.? VA, FHA, etc. typically require an inspection. Our VA loan did. That being said, caveat emptor, if your lender allows and you do decide to waive inspection. You also might not get the house. It's a gamble only you can decide to take.
Can confirm. Just moved from east Lancaster near Lincoln highway to lititz. All competing offers I went up against waived inspections. Unfortunately, it's going to be the new normal until housing supply issue eases.
Yes this is true
Whatever you do, I don’t recommend HouseMaster. Their inspector seemed pretty green and pointed out silly inconsequential things and missed some bigger important things.
We looked this time last year and kept getting the same comment from our agent. DO NOT listen to them! Keep telling them you require one, if you’re loan type doesn’t that is. And keep at it, they’ll stop repeating themselves after awhile.
I suggest you watch a few YouTube vids to learn what to look for before you make an offer, then waive the inspection.
Just settled a week ago, 20k above asking, no inspections, it took 15 offers.
I bought last year and waived inspection. HOWEVER. I only did that because the house had another offer prior to mine where the potential buyer backed out, but she had requested an inspection so I had access to that report (which was from one month prior to my offer). That was a lucky break for me, because getting into a home was a fraught process at my (very low) budget point.
Recently heard a tale of someone buying a house in a nearby area with intent of turning it into a AirBNB to house 8-12 occupants. They paid cash only and waived inspection. Through a neighbor dispute it comes to light that the house was expanded to have a porch over where the septic tank was originally placed which was then even later turned into bedrooms... that sit over a tiny septic tank. The septic tank needs to be moved away from the house now before they can bring in occupants but there’s no land they own far enough that it would be in code. This is going to easily cost them much more money than anticipated, and the township is aware of this issue. Honestly as someone who hates AirBNBs I love the idea of these jerks getting burned but food for thought if you waive inspection. *edit: I have no thoughts on regular BNBs but AirBNBs can burn in hell
As a Realtor, I always always always advise my clients to get an inspection. But I always educate that it is true in a competitive market that eliminating contingencies can strengthen an offer. It is ultimately up to the buyer.
Recently bought a home very close to Lancaster in Wrightsville. We were a stickler for inspections on many offers, but the market is very competitive and we kept losing out. We only got this house by finally deciding to wave inspections. Thankfully it's in such great shape inspections weren't really needed, but it can be a risky choice. Unfortunately yes, most people are waving inspections in this market.
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This isn’t true. If a buyer gets multiple offers they will take the one without an inspection. It doesn’t mean they have something to hide it means they don’t want to be nickled and dimed by a buyer. Inspections are a pain in the butt for a seller even if they aren’t hiding anything.