One question we get asked all the time from our buyers is, “should we make this offer SUBJECT to us approving a HOME INSPECTION!?”

Contrary to popular belief – The answer is not a simple yes or no.

You see – like many decisions, when submitting an offer to purchase real estate, there are PROS and there are CONS to everything!

First – let’s have a quick look at some of the obvious pros!

• You can be sure every system in the home is functioning correctly from the plumbing to the heating to the electrical systems
• You can make sure the roof and the structure don’t have any damage or issues
  • These first two big items are especially important in a detached house where you don’t have a strata to pay for any repairs and you’re left to foot the bill yourself!
• Having your offer subject to inspection allows you to mitigate risk by letting you back out of the deal if the inspection doesn’t go well
  OR
• You can have your Realtor negotiate a repair or even a price reduction!

All of that sounds great doesn’t it?!  Why would there be any cons to this?

Well having your offer SUBJECT to a home inspection in many situations could end up costing you more than it saves you!  Let me give you some examples:

• In this market we’re running into a LOT of multiple offer situations on condos. It’s not uncommon to compete against 10 to 20 offers on a single condo purchase.In this situation, on a STRATA property (where the majority of concerns for inspection would be covered by strata anyway), this clause could greatly lower your competitiveness with other offers.This means in order to compensate for the inspection clause not being preferable to the seller, you’d have to pay MORE MONEY to make it equivalent to an offer WITHOUT this subject.
  • For example – if there are 15 offers on a relatively new condo, and you and another offer are both tied for the highest bid…you having subject to an inspection while the other offer is subject free would likely cause the sellers to choose the other offer.
  • You would theoretically have to PAY MORE for the condo in order to be considered equivalent.  Knowing that the majority of higher cost potential repairs is actually covered by strata, you’d likely be better to waive this subject all together.

As you can see – when you’re writing an offer to purchase property – things can get tricky. Usually this is one of the biggest purchases of your life, so it’s super important to work with a great realtor that you trust!

They will help you decide the best way to mitigate all your risk and prevent you from buying a real money pit but also balance that against being competitive with your offer, depending on the very unique circumstances of that particular property! Here’s 10 problems that you want to avoid when buying a house and what can be discovered if you get a home inspection.

Hope you guys found this video interesting and I encourage you to discuss this topic further with your Realtor before you make your next offer!

As always, give us a call if you have any questions or feedback and we’d love to help you out!