House inspection tomorrow - fingers crossed!

[dotgirl]

We've been looking at buying a house for a while, but just started looking at them in earnest last Sunday. Our agent called me on Monday to tell me she thought we'd love this house (http://www.windermere.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Listing.ListingDetail&ListingID=15653459), so we looked at it that evening. She was right - we totally fell in love with it. She ran the comps on Tuesday and we made an offer on Wednesday. They countered on Thursday, and we accepted. So we're in "mutual acceptance".

The inspection is tomorrow, and if there's nothing major wrong, we'll close on 10/31. Since the people selling it just bought it in 2004, I'm only a little nervous about the inspection.

So! Please keep your fingers crossed for us! (Oh, and chime in if you have any good inspection/moving/furnishing/whatnot tips.)

[ErinMC]

Good luck tomorrow! Fingers being crossed now. :-)

Erin

Mom to Chase 2/2004 and Logan 5/2006

[schums]

Since it has a basement, you might want to ask about a radon test. Not all inspectors do them, and sometimes it costs extra $$. We had one done here, and it turned out that the level was WAY high. The previous homeowner was great and agreed to put in an exhaust system (about $1000, if I remember right). Since there's a bedroom down there, you might want to check it out.

Good luck tomorrow!!

Sarah
Mom to Alex (3/2002) and Catherine (8/2003)

[SnuggleBuggles]

Inspection tips:
-Whoever is better at home repairs should follow the inspector around and really pay attention. Either you or your partner will learn a lot about the house, things to look out for in the future, and maybe even pick up some tips on how to make things better. A good inspector will write up a pretty good assesment of what the condition is now and what issues are probably going to come up. Don't just send the inspector off alone! This time and their experience is valuable!

-Make sure you find out the age of the roof, windows, furnace and when any major projects were done. Take notes!

We lucked out with both of our inspections in that the friendly people we were buying from were present at them. This gave us time to just talk about the history of the house and ask lingering questions. Things we asked were q's about the neighbors and neighborhoods (when is trash pick up, what gets recycled and when, what are the neighbors like, good things to do in the area if you aren't familiar with it...). They were all very forthcoming with information and told me things I never thought to ask.

I also took some time to take pictures. I later used those pictures for inspiration on possible ways to arrange furniture. Ideas may seem obvious now but when the house is empty you may forget.

On the subject of furniture placement it is so handy to get yourself some graph paper and make scales of the room and furnitue. That way you can "rearrange" the furniture without the labor! The product Moving Men is very useful for moving heavy furniture around.

Really poke around at the inspection. Lift area rugs to see the condition of the floors. I took the time to write out lists of what we would want to change (new lights, painting, flooring).

I found it extremely helpful to shell out the money for a "move in" clean (paying for a "move out" clean is a great idea too since it'll just save you time). We had moved plenty of times before I decided to spend the money on this and was happy we did it. I just don't like the idea of cleaning out someone elses' toilet, tub and such or having to wipe out all the cabinets and drawers. I'd rather get to the other stuff. We also hired carpet cleaners. By the way, we did both of these things *before* we moved our stuff in. That way things all got thoroughly cleaned and it took less time/ cost less money!

We also moved in a week after we bought the house. We used that week to do projects like painting that are just a lot easier to do when the house is empty.

Find childcare for the day of the move. There is so much activity and so much to think about that if you can find somewhere else for the kids to be then that is best. My most stressful move was with just me and my 15 month old. Dh had already moved for work a few days prior.

Kids' rooms should be last taken apart and first put together. Helps with the flow and transition.

HTH some. Good luck!!
Beth

[jenmcadams]

We did this as well and needed the radon pump. Definitely ask for the test if it's something that's common in your area.

[ribbit1019]

Oh it looks so nice! I hope the inspection goes very well!

I second the "follow the inspector around advice" DH and I did this and we learned a lot.

Radon is not too common around us but we got the test anyway, never hurts. :)

No advice on moving, except maybe unpack as much asyou can and don't just stick things in the basement. We still have boxes that were never unpacked from three years ago. We are just now going through them and a lot of it was stuff we shouldn't have even moved!!

Good luck!!

Christy
My Waterbabies
http://lilypie.com/pic/060928/Yw0w.jpg http://b3.lilypie.com/0vphm4.png
http://lilypie.com/pic/060928/iBmU.jpg http://bf.lilypie.com/uy3Mm4.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/steitzsmith/Other/jump.gif

[SnuggleBuggles]

Hope it's not too late! Turn everything on! Test the tubs, sinks, toilets, showers...look for good water pressure on both the hot and the cold as well as for any leaks. Check things like the dishwasher (they should do that if it is part of the sale). I remember they tested ours' briefly but as soon as we moved in we noticed it was a noisy, ancient piece of crap and didn't really work so we had to replace it right away. Don't expect things to work. If you find something that isn't up to par negotiate in the price, get the owners to fix it or at least make a mental note if it isn't a deal breaker. Always easier to get the work done now.

Oh, and I 3rd the radon test.
Might even consider a termite inspection too.
Beth

[madelinesmom]

I was just checking to see how the insepction went... I am totally addicted to those shows where they have inspections... We bought a new home so the inspection was pretty painless, hope yours went well...

Good Luck,

Jane
Madeline and Emily's Mom
1/20/03 11/29/05

[dotgirl]

It went really well. The inspector was hilarious, and he did a great job of explaining everything to us.

We're having another test run - it's called a 'sewer scope', although DH refers to it as the "seweroscopy" - where they run a camera through your sewer line to make sure nothing is cracked, etc.

There are only two "need to fix" items - one is a small wiring issue, and the other is finding out about an oil tank on the property. Our agent is going to get us a credit for the first thing and make the sellers figure out the second thing. (Oil tanks can by pricey to decommission if they've leaked - they rarely do, but it can be $5k+ to take care of. Eek!)

There were also a couple of "might want to fix" (gutters, having more outlets grounded, etc), so we'll be asking for some credits there too, I believe.

But all in all, it went really well, and we're still on track to close by Halloween!