A professional home inspection can reveal a lot about each residence; this important home-buying process can help future owners discover the property’s obvious as well as hidden defects. With the help of a digital property inspection app, anyone can discern whether the site a client will be buying is a great investment or a future liability.
The ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) made a survey to find out the top home inspection problems. Spot these flaws with your management inspection software and weigh in the good and bad of buying a particular house.
Problem #1: Incongruous surface grading & drainage. Coming in at first, surface grading & drainage has been deemed as the most commonly discovered flaw as reported by 36% of ASHI members. This problem is the cause for many common household hassles such as water penetration found in footings, basement and crawlspace, as well as cracked concrete and slabs. Homeowners can repair this problem by installing or repairing a gutter and having a downspout system to clear the drainage away from the property’s foundation.
Problem #2: Incorrect electrical wiring. About 20% of the ASHI inspectors find this to be another common problem which can be detected through property inspection tools. This defect is the cause of inadequate electrical service to the house, as well as insufficient overload protection and sloppy wiring connections. Most of the bad electrical wiring was done by DIY enthusiasts, which poses as a serious hazard for the homeowners.
Problem #3: Damaged or aged roofs. 9% of the ASHI inspectors have declared this to be one of the most typical property inspection problem. Most of the wooden roofs are worn out at the end of their useful quality. Shingle roofs can only last up to two decades. This causes roof leakage, causing inconvenience to the next property owners. It can be easy to repair damaged roof tiles and shingles, but major roof repairs requires time and poses a bigger expense.
Problem #4: Deficient heating systems. This defect includes malfunctioning controls, dangerous exhaust, blocked chimneys and cracked heat exchangers. These are in fact posing serious health and safety threats and should be addressed by proper repair and regular maintenance. A newer central heating system may be expensive, but it is more efficient and will help the homeowner regain their investment by lessening heating and cooling expenses.
Problem #5: Poor general maintenance. American homeowners on an average, takes better care of their vehicles than their homes; this is the conclusion of many property inspectors who discovers cracked, dirty exteriors along with crumbling masonry and amateur wiring and plumbing. While these problems may be more cosmetic than severe, this reveals the owner’s lack of care to their home.
Other flaws include structural problems, bad plumbing, flaws in the property’s exterior and poor ventilation. There are also some minor blemishes listed along the survey, such as dripping faucets, lead-based paints sticky windows and asbestos. All these problems can be assessed through a property inspection software like SnapInspect which can be used in detecting property faults. We have listed a few more property inspection faults in our blog; read this post for more tips.
