Home Inspection, in simple terms, serves to better understand your home – its strengths and weaknesses. This’ll come handy especially if you are contemplating selling off your home, to better price your home in the market. On the other side of the coin, from a buyer’s perspective, home inspection lets him realize if he is paying the right amount of money to buy the home. A good home always fetches a decent rate in the market, and none will be averse to pay that amount to buy that home either. But, a home with issues, constructional or otherwise, is not bound to have many takers, and even if somebody comes forward to buy that, they in most likelihood won’t bid for a higher amount.

In fact, independent home inspections are not done by the buyer and seller alone, but also the bank authorities if the buyer had applied for a home loan to finance his purchase.

Home inspection is usually conducted by professional home inspectors, who do the job for prospective buyers/sellers for a fee. It is not a long drawn out process either. But, it is important that you maintain a checklist of things that you want them to verify, for sans a prepared checklist, he and you might miss some aspect or the other in the hurry.

The checklist should ideally include exterior, plumbing system, the basement or crawlspace, electrical system, furnace and air conditioning, kitchen, doors, windows, fireplace, roof and attic. It would be a good idea to organize your checklist by different parts of the home, such as from outside to inside and then to the terrace and tank etc. The bottom line is not to confuse things or miss any part of the home amid inspection that is critical in determining its value in the market. It is also a good idea to walk around the home and see if anything catches your eye before the professional home inspector arrives.

Finally, before calling in any home inspector, ensure that he holds a valid home inspector license. Home inspection is an art, which also requires thorough technical knowledge about a lot of things and loads of prior experience. A novice or trainee may not be able to do the job perfectly, especially if it is quite a big home with lots of rooms to assess. In other words, it is always better to have somebody who is an expert in the trade.