Home inspections generally take 2 to 3 hours. There are several factors that can cause an inspection to go over that time, such as:
Older home: older homes will generally have more delayed maintenance items and items that do not meet the current standards. These all require additional time to document in the report.
Clutter: homes with a lot of clutter can take additional time to work around and access crucial components such as attic accesses, panel boxes, and mechanical equipment.
Poorly maintained Home: homes that have not been well-maintained often will take longer as well because of the large amount of issues to document in the report. This is usually from elderly homeowners or homeowners that do not know how to maintain their home.
Large Homes: larger homes can take more time to navigate and often have more than one kitchen and more than one HVAC system.
These are just a small set of examples that can cause a home inspection to go over the estimated time.
On the flip-side, there are several things that can cause the home inspection to be much shorter, such as:
New construction: new construction homes have no delayed maintenance items and generally have mostly punch-list items or incomplete items. These will generally be much quicker to document in the report.
Well Maintained Home: a well-maintained home will often have less issues to document, and consequently are quicker to inspect.
Smaller home: sometimes a smaller home will be quicker to inspect, but that could largely depend on how well it was maintained.
I always try to be as efficient as possible to respect the time of the agent, the seller, and the buyer. During the inspection, I am looking at hundreds of items that could possibly be documented in the report which often takes most of my focus, so I generally will go over the findings with the client at the very end of the inspection.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, and I look forward to working with you in the future.
Gregory Pomp
HI 14662
