Why you want rain during your home inspection
November 19th, 2009 categories: First Time Buyers, For Buyers, Helpful Tips, STR Market Info Blitz
This post is part of the Strong Team REALTORS Market Info Blitz. We’re heating up the Winter market by giving you three-months worth of the information you need, November through January. Check out the latest posts in the blitz, here.
When it's home inspection time, grab the umbrella, but pray for rain.
The Charlottesville area has seen a tremendous amount of rain so far in November. Whether you think that’s good or not, most people say, “well, we need it.” They’re right.
Most people aren’t particularly fond of rain. Sure, we like it every once in a while (when we need it), but overall, we try to avoid rainy days. We’ll go to great lengths to schedule important events around the rain, and when it does rain on our plans, we’ll go to just as great lengths to reschedule things.
When you are buying a home, however, there is one day that you should hope for rain– home inspection day.
Why would I want it to rain on home inspection day?
During the home buying process, you are probably going to conduct a home inspection. If you are thinking of skipping the home inspection– think again. Having a home inspection is critical because it will allow you to put the home through its paces to make sure that everything is working the way you want it to, and it will also allow you to familiarize yourself with the systems of the home. The home inspection is also the best opportunity you will have to uncover any current or potential problems with the home.
Uncovering current and potential problems is exactly why you want it to rain on home inspection day.
Some of the largest costs associated with home maintenance, especially unexpected maintenance, are caused by water. Water is tough on homes. It finds its way into places it sometimes shouldn’t causing all kinds of issues.
During a home inspection, it will be difficult to uncover the problems that water might cause unless you can test the homes systems against the water. Luckily, Mother Nature is great at providing the best test condition– RAIN.
What to look for when it rains
When you conduct a home inspection in the rain, the most obvious thing that a home inspector will look for are signs of a roof leak. Obviously, finding a leak is much easier to do when it is actually raining on the roof.
If it were sunny and dry outside, you might still be able to see signs of past leaks, but you would have no way of knowing if they had been fixed properly or not– until it rains. That is why you would rather have it rain before you own the home, as opposed to after.
Another thing that is very easy to see when it is raining, especially if there has been continuous rain, is how well the home drains. Water infiltration into a crawl space or basement can be very bad for your home over the long term, and, if left untreated, it can become very expensive to fix the problems it can cause.
The good news is that if you can discover drainage problems early, they are usually fairly straightforward to fix. The trick is finding the potential problem. Observing the house in the rain will allow you to do just that. You and your inspector can go into the crawl space or basement and see if water is penetrating into places that it shouldn’t.
Let’s be honest, most homeowners aren’t going to look for these things once they move into the house– until the problem becomes too glaring to miss. If it is raining during your home inspection, you will have the benefit of the trained eye of a professional home inspector there to find things that you might miss.
Rain, rain, don’t go away
Rain can really mess up your plans, sometimes. Usually, we do everything we can to avoid making plans on rainy days. We tend to just want to stay inside. Well, if you are buying a home and want to spend a rainy day inside, there is no better way to do it than at a home inspection.
So, next time you have a home inspection scheduled, you might want to do a little rain dance; and when you show up to the home inspection at your new home and the rain is falling, say a little thank you. In the end, you’ll be very glad you had those few hours in the rain.
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