The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) is focused on empowering the Home buyer. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will be administering and enforcing the RESPA rules. The good news is, the CFPB is doing a wonderful job enforcing the rules. The missing piece and not the responsibility of the CFPB is properly educating the home buyer.
A home buyer gets a ratified sales contract, and the first thing to do is find a home inspector to inspect the home. What do you do?
- Let your Real Estate Agent handle it?
- Ask other recent home buyers who they used?
- Look on the internet through a search engine?
Once you get a couple of names, then what?
– See if they are licensed?
– See if they are bonded and insured?
– Ask the inspector coming out how he got into the business and their background?
On a scale 1 to 10 (10 being most important), how would you rate the importance of a quality home inspection?
Now, hold on to your answers, and read the following statement below.
Fact 1: In the state of Virginia and Washington DC, at home inspector does NOT have to be licensed. In the state of Maryland, Home Inspectors only need a 72 hour on-site training and pass the National Home Inspectors Examination.
Fact 2: Most, not all Home Inspectors have in their contract’s fine print, that if an item is overlooked by a home inspector, the home inspector is only responsible to reimburse you for the cost of the home inspection.
True story, an experienced homeowner moved into their new house. Decided to run a professional Radon Test, and the inspector said first you need to fix the mold problem here. They were surprised the home inspector missed the mold. It cost over 20k to fix and would have been a deciding factor in purchasing the house.
So I ask you again, how important is it you choose the right Home Inspector?
For more information on selecting a home inspector, please feel free to call us at 703-246-1551
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Ask for Todd LaBorwit
Reference: Maryland License Requirements: http://www.dllr.state.md.us/license/reahi/reahireq.shtml
