Read about my successes and failures. Learn from my experiences and gain insight without losing any cash!!!
Lesson: Catching a Falling Knife
Lesson: Currency Exchange
Lesson: Mutual Fund
Lesson: Paid to Wait
Lesson: Pricing in a Downturn
This is where you’ll find find my Blog. I will comment on the latest news relating to investing, real estate, and the financial markets.
One of the critical components to any house purchase is to go through a home inspection checklist with a professional home inspector before you remove conditions on a real estate offer. This is an essential and relatively inexpensive service, in relation to the purchase price of a home. Many people disregard this step, to save a few bucks when purchasing a house. This is a big risk, when you can obtain a professional who will complete a home inspection checklist, for a relatively small price. If the house you are attempting to purchase is a couple of hundred thousand dollars, then $300-$1,000 is minimal to be spend on a professional to help ensure your family’s safety and comfort.
A home inspection checklist can potentially save you tens of thousands of dollars, not just on the obvious aging components of a house, but on structural defects as well. If you don’t want to be dealing with excavating down one of your walls to perform structural repairs at huge costs, because you saved a few bucks on the front end, then go through a home inspection checklist with your inspector, before you close the deal.
An acquaintance of mine purchased a house on a great court in a solid family friendly area. It had three bedrooms and a finished basement with enough room for their growing family. In the first few months his wife had been getting progressively sicker, and went to the doctor. They ended up checking the house for mold spores, and it was several hundred times over the allowable limit! They had to completely rip out the entire finished basement and repair the issues, and had no recourse against the former owners. Having a mold test as part of your home inspection checklist, is a must to avoid the above situation.
But the market is hot you say! There is no time for an inspection as houses are having multiple offers placed on them before they sell, right? Well yes, but not entirely. Often in a hot market realtors will have an “offers date.” This means that the house will be open for viewing for anywhere from three to ten days before the owners will accept an offer. So, after you have viewed the home, and decided it is the one for you, book an inspector who will complete a home inspection checklist before you write an offer on the house. Make sure your dream house doesn’t become a nightmare!