A Building and Termite Inspection in Melbourne can cost a bit of money if you keep losing at auction.  Is the building inspection required or not or is it actually even worth it?  We know it is as we see around 2000 homes a year and we see the problems.

We have all seen the home buyers attend the open for inspections and look around, test the doors and jump up and down on floors. Everything seems fine, but are you absolutely sure......

Mr Inspector carried out a building inspection in Frankston recently for a client who was initially undecided whether a building inspection was worth it or not.  He believed the home looked in good order......Admittedly the home looked good to us from the outside as well.

A warning to the non converted

The photo above shows what we found.  The entire roof frame had been damaged by fire in the past and in our opinion needed to be replaced. In this case the house was for sale and not auction.  Our client bought the property and was astute enough o have a satisfactory building inspection clause written into his offer.  In this case the building inspection wasn't a waste of money - he got his moneys worth and made money but negotiating a better price for the home. We understand it was around $15,000. One needs to remember that all houses have issues.  In 15 years doing pre-purchase building inspections we probably find one perfect house per year and that includes new homes that we conduct hand over inspections on.  A perfect old house is normally owned by a retired tradie who does nothing but walk around maintaining the home and the garden.  When we come across one of the these we wish all homes were like it.

Don't be too Fussy

Home buyers should not expect the house they are buying to be perfect because it won't be.  They need to expect that there will be maintenance issues that require repair or further monitoring. All old homes have them an they are no different from a car in that continual maintenance is required.  In my opinion, a home buyer shouldn't  get overly concerned about a bit of rot in a window frame, a cracked window pane, rusted gutters or the fence falling over.  If you are going to worry about those issues and you are wanting to purchase an older home, you will never buy one.

In summary

You are somewhat crazy if you don't get a building inspection even if you have to fork out money for a few.  We have had clients not do it because it costs too much over time and regretted it.  There's some articles on my website about that.  If you got a $20,000 car tested and it failed, would you not get the next one tested because you had to pay again?  Its too much of a risk for around $500.00.