Home inspection: what it covers, what it costs, and how to negotiate repairs
The appraisal protects the lender’s collateral. The inspection protects you. Most purchase contracts open a short window — commonly seven to fourteen days — in which you can look behind the paint, and that window is the only real leverage you will ever have over the condition of the house.
Inspection and appraisal are not the same errand
Buyers routinely assume that because a licensed professional walked the property for the lender, someone checked whether the furnace works. Nobody did. An appraiser is hired by the lender to form an opinion of market value, and spends most of that effort on comparable sales rather than on the water heater. An inspector is hired by you, works for you, and produces a condition report that the lender usually never sees.
| Appraisal | Home inspection | |
|---|---|---|
| Who orders it | The lender | You |
| Who it answers to | The lender | You |
| Question answered | Is the property worth the price? | What condition is the property in? |
| Typical cost | Several hundred dollars, usually billed through the loan | Paid out of pocket at the time of service |
| Required? | Effectively yes on a financed purchase | Never by the lender; almost always worth it |
| If it comes back bad | The loan amount may be cut — see appraisal gap | You renegotiate, or you leave |
FHA and VA appraisers do apply minimum property standards, and can call out peeling paint on a pre-1978 home, a missing handrail or an inoperative furnace. That is a health-and-safety screen for the insurer, not an inspection. HUD tells FHA borrowers plainly that the appraisal is not a guarantee the house is free of defects.
What a standard inspection covers
The national inspector associations publish standards of practice that converge on the same ten areas. A general inspection is visual and non-invasive: the inspector does not open walls, lift carpet or dismantle equipment.
- Structure — foundation, framing, floors, visible signs of movement
- Roof — covering, flashing, penetrations, drainage, apparent remaining life
- Exterior — siding, trim, grading, walkways, decks, retaining walls
- Interior — walls, ceilings, floors, windows, doors, stairs
- Electrical — service size, panel, breakers, a sample of outlets, grounding, GFCI protection
- Plumbing — supply and drain material, fixtures, water heater, visible leaks
- HVAC — heating and cooling equipment, age, operation on normal controls
- Insulation and ventilation — attic, crawlspace, bath and kitchen exhaust
- Built-in appliances — usually operated, rarely tested to specification
- Garage and site — door safety reverse, firewall separation, drainage
What is excluded, and priced separately
Radon, wood-destroying insects, sewer lateral condition, mold, asbestos, lead, pools and spas, wells, septic systems and chimney flues sit outside a general inspection almost everywhere. Each has its own specialist and its own fee. Two are worth thinking about before you order: a sewer scope on any home more than roughly forty years old, where a collapsed clay lateral is a five-figure repair invisible from inside, and a wood-destroying organism report in the South and Southeast, which some loan programs require anyway. On homes built before 1978, a federal disclosure rule also gives buyers a ten-day opportunity to have the property tested for lead-based paint unless the parties agree otherwise in writing — a right that expires quietly if you do not use it.
What it costs
Indicative national ranges as of 2026, to sanity-check a quote rather than to budget precisely — pricing is local and moves with square footage, age and travel:
- General inspection, average single-family home: roughly $300 to $500; small condos can run lower, and homes above 3,000 square feet or a century old commonly run higher
- Radon test: roughly $150 to $300
- Sewer scope: roughly $150 to $400
- Termite or wood-destroying organism report: roughly $75 to $200
Two practical points. The fee is paid at the time of service, not at closing, and it is not refunded if you walk away — which is exactly what makes it cheap. And the inspection is not part of the loan, so it does not appear on the Loan Estimate the way the appraisal does; our closing costs guide separates the fees the lender controls from the ones you do.
Turning a report into money
An inspection report on an ordinary house runs forty pages and flags dozens of items. Almost none of them are negotiating material. Sort what you get into three buckets before you ask for anything.
- Safety and structure — active water intrusion, foundation movement, a failing roof, an unsafe panel, gas or venting defects. Ask.
- Systems near the end of life — a 22-year-old furnace, a water heater past warranty. Worth raising, rarely worth killing a deal over.
- Maintenance and cosmetics — caulking, a loose railing, a cracked outlet cover. Fix them yourself and keep your credibility for the first bucket.
Ask for a closing cost credit rather than repairs where you can. A seller under contract has no incentive to hire a good contractor, and a repair done badly in the last week before closing is worse than no repair. A credit lets you choose the contractor and the timing. It has a ceiling, though: seller-paid amounts are capped by loan program, so a large credit can exceed what your loan allows — the limits are laid out in our seller concessions guide. Above that ceiling the usual fix is a price reduction, which changes the appraised-value math instead.
Where the lender requires a repair — an FHA or VA property condition item, for example — the seller generally has to complete it before closing, and a re-inspection fee follows. Build the extra days into your schedule; the closing timeline has little slack.
When walking away is the right answer
Some findings are not a negotiation. Structural movement with an unknown cause, chronic water in a basement, a buried oil tank, a failed septic field, knob-and-tube or aluminum branch wiring in a market where insurers decline it, or a roof at the end of its life in a coastal or wildfire county where a policy may be hard to bind at all. Insurance availability has become a genuine deal condition rather than a formality, and a house you cannot insure is a house you cannot finance.
Protecting your deposit is procedural: give written notice inside the contingency window, in the form the contract requires. Verbal notice to an agent is not notice — see earnest money for how deposits are actually lost. And if a report leaves you unsure whether you can carry the house at all, a free HUD-approved housing counselor will walk through the budget with you before you sign anything.
Frequently asked questions
Should I attend the inspection?
Yes, at least for the last hour. The written report is a legal document; the walkthrough is where an inspector will tell you which of the forty flagged items actually matter and roughly what they cost. Bring a list of questions about the systems you cannot see.
Does the seller have to fix what the inspection finds?
Generally no. Unless your contract or a state disclosure law says otherwise, an inspection contingency gives you the right to renegotiate or to withdraw, not the right to demand repairs. Sellers respond to the risk of losing the deal, not to the report itself.
Is waiving the inspection ever reasonable?
It is a risk transfer, not a strategy. A middle path that sellers often accept keeps the inspection for information only, with no right to ask for repairs, or sets a dollar threshold below which you will not renegotiate. Waiving entirely means owning every defect, known and unknown, the day you take title.
Do I need an inspection on new construction?
A municipal inspector checks code compliance, not workmanship, and has no duty to you. Independent inspections before drywall goes up, again at the final walkthrough, and once more before the one-year builder warranty expires are common practice — covered in our guide to buying new construction.
Who pays for the home inspection?
The buyer, in nearly all markets, because the buyer is the client. Some sellers commission a pre-listing inspection; treat it as useful background and order your own anyway. A report addressed to someone else was written for someone else.
Sources
Related: Appraisal gap: what happens when the home appraises below your offer, Earnest money explained: how much, who holds it, and how you lose it, Closing costs explained: what is negotiable, what is not, How long does it take to close on a house? The week-by-week timeline. Hub: First-time buyer.