Beware of Your Home Inspectors
A home inspection should be weighed very carefully including the possibility that it may not reveal the most important things you need to know about a house. The first reason is that they do not do what you think they do.You think they are there to find existing or potential problems in the house so that you can decide if you should or shouldn't buy the house.You could not be more wrong about what they do.
You should understand that a home inspection is nothing more than a "feel good moment" for you provided courtesy of the Texas Real Estate industry.Unless you find one of the rare inspectors that actually understands home construction and what problems normally beset homes, you will probably receive a 5 to 20 page report that will tell you if there is a dishwasher, a fireplace, that the plumbing works, etcetera.
The Texas Real Estate Commission licenses home inspectors, but don't be fooled.Often, these "inspectors"have NO prior experience in home construction or repair.In Houston, after Enron failed, several former Enron employees became home inspectors.
A home inspector is only required to tell you one of four things:
- That an item is present
- That an item is not present
- That it was inspected
- That it is damaged or needs repair
So in the case of the air conditioning system, the inspector will say if it is there or not; that he inspected it and as long as it blows relatively cool air when turned on, he will not note or report that it is damaged or in need of repair.But wait- if the a/c system is ten years old and does not cool sufficiently due to a leaking compressor, will he tell you that?NO.What if the a/c system is not even sufficient to cool the space involved?He won't tell you that either. All he is required to do and all that he typically does is turn things on and see if they appear to work.There is no evaluation of how well they work or whether you may be incurring repair expenses or replacement in the near future.
What can you do?Hire a licensed air conditioning repair service to evaluate the system.It is money well spent.