Q - We have made an offer on a foreclosed home and will be buying it “as is” and for cash.  It has been damaged so will need repair and my advisor told me to get a good master carpenter/contractor instead of a home inspector to go over it because a home inspector would nit-pick every little crack.

Which would you do?

Sara in Morrow

A - Is there a problem with a home inspector that nit-picks?

Believe me I am not picking on you for asking this question, because I get it quite often and I just don’t understand. If I am in the market for a home of any kind, no matter if it is new or used; I would want to have a complete listing of all the problems with the house.

Then I would have a comprehensive list of everything that needed to be done.

I could then use that list to determine what, if anything, I would want to take care of.

You may want to jump right in and knock out the whole list, you may want to negotiate the price with the seller based on the list, or you might just want to check things off the list as money comes available.

It just makes more sense to me that you would want to know everything wrong, whether you were going to do something about it or not.

So, I would go with the home inspector. And for my money, the nit-pickier the better.

A quality home inspector will not only list all the problems he/she finds, but will back them up with pictures and a personal testimony if needed.

Also know that a good home inspection will run you $5-700, which will be chicken scratch for the money they can possibly save you down the road.

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