You’ve just put an offer on the home of your dreams, and it was accepted. Congratulations! Now is the fun part: paperwork, negotiations, appraisals and a Tampa home inspection. The inspection may cause a feeling of dread; what if the house has issues that seem bigger than you can manage? it is important to time your Tampa home inspection so you don’t have to waste your time or money.
While some buyers may try and inspect as soon as possible or want to delay, there is a protocol for when a Tampa home inspection should be completed. Once an offer is accepted, you will put money into escrow, do all contract negotiations, and then comes time for the inspection. The buyer has 10 days to complete the home inspection from this point and send in the list of repairs they wish fixed by the seller. After that, the ball is in the sellers’ court, and they have 10 days to review your requests and the Tampa home inspection report and negotiate. This is a stressful time, as it is a lot of back and forth and a good deal of waiting, but it can be worth it. If there are a few major areas that need repair or attention by the sellers, stand your ground; chances are, if you walk away, someone else will find those same issues and bring them up again.
If you are considering doing additional inspections to check the pool or pest damage, these will need to be scheduled during this window as well. Make sure you are present at any and all home inspections to make sure you ask any questions you may have; this can be helpful when you present your list of requests to the seller. The more you know, the more leverage you have when it comes to final negotiations. Plus, this is your future home: find out as much as you can about it so you don’t move in and get blindsided by something.
It is easy to get overwhelmed or distracted when you finally buy a home. There is so much going on, that it can just seem like too much. Make sure you are working with your real estate agent on your timeline so you can schedule your home inspection within the right window to make sure the home of your dreams is move-in ready.