Reputable and experienced real estate agents will highly recommend that their clients who are interested in purchasing homes to invest in home inspections. They will provide leads of reputable and licensed home inspectors that are licensed and certified through The International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI).
Not only will individuals wonder how much a home inspection will cost, which will vary but they will want to know how long a home inspection can take. The fact of the matter is that a professional home inspection won’t be completed in a matter of minutes due to the fact several types of assessments need to be made.
Home inspectors need to assess the function, condition of materials in the home, components, configuration and the systems that comprise the residential property.
Therefore, the amount of time a home inspection takes will depend on several factors:
The age of the home– The truth is that older homes will take longer to inspect due to the increased possibility that problems will arise based on age. For instance, if older pipes haven’t been maintained properly, or if wiring is old then assessing these kinds of factors will take longer. The last thing you would want are pipes bursting or a fire breaking out. Inspectors need to take extra time to look into potential problems that could arise in older homes for these reasons. Newer home have much better and newer plumbing and wiring, and therefore less time will be spent on these factors unless a rare and obvious defect was detected in the newer home.
The previous use of the home – If a home that was used as a rental property, the odds are greater that problems will arise due to general neglect of the home. Therefore, it will take longer to inspect a rental home than it would to a home that was owned- which even applies to newer properties. The fact of the matter is that tenants who are renting homes will generally be less concerned about the condition of the home since they do not own it and will end up leaving it at some point. Homeowners usually take more pride in their homes due to the fact that they purchased the property and will be more likely to properly care for it. Therefore, it is common for rental properties to be in less than pristine condition, and the same usually applies to homes that have entered foreclosure.
The size of the home – This one is quite obvious as larger homes will take much longer to inspect smaller homes considering there is more real estate to cover and more systems that need to be assessed. Keep in mind that a small home that is in great condition can be inspected a lot more quickly than a large mansion that is in great condition as well.
So that all said, an average home inspection can take between 2-4 hours to complete. To give you a better idea of that, on average an inspection of a 3000 square foot home that is less than 25 years of age with no significant issues arising can take give or take about 3 hours to complete. That time will exclude the time it will take to write up the report which can also vary depending on what issues have been detected in the inspection.
Therefore, if you are a buyer who is interested in a particular home, these are the factors that will depend on how long the inspection can potentially take.