Real Estate Inspection - Do Your Own

Why should you do your own real estate inspection? To get a better deal. It isn't necessary to learn building codes, and you probably should use a professional inspector in any case. The point of learning what to look for is to have negotiating points.

Home Inspection Checklist

With a good inspection checklist, you won't forget things. There are more than a hundred items on my own list. Could you keep all those in mind as you walk through a property? Did you remember to look for water stains on the basement walls the last time you looked at a house? Bring a list!

A good list is organized by area of the house, usually starting outside. As you walk around and then through the home, check each item on the list. Be sure to take notes. If the gutter is coming loose on the side of the house, write that down, along with notes about rotten wood or anything else associated with it.

Don't worry if you don't know the difference between 12-gauge and 14-gauge wiring. The point isn't to become an expert on all the building trades, as useful as that would be. Just use what you do know. Note if something looks "odd" or "smells funny." Then you can have a professional inspector have a closer look.

Real Estate Inspection As A Negotiating Tool

You can, of course, just make an offer on a home with an inspection clause. Then, after an inspector goes in, you can re-negotiate the price based on his findings. This is a common way of doing it. The problem is that it can often offend the seller, and blow the deal. Would you like somebody to drop their offer by $10,000 after they already put it in writing?

A better way is to find as many problems with the property as you can, BEFORE making the offer. That way you can take all of these things into account. Also, a list of the problems presented with an offer is a good impersonal (therefore non-offensive) way to negotiate a lower price.

You don't have to be a carpenter to note that a railing is loose. You can see if a home needs new paint. Real estate inspection can start with simple things like these, and end with a better price for you.

Steve Gillman has invested real estate for years. For a complete home inspection checklist, and to see a photo of a beautiful house he and his wife bought for $17,500, visit http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion deal with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure practices. New York, Nevada and Delaware joined California in holding out for better terms.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.

California has until Monday to share in a multi-state deal with banks to obtain mortgage relief and reforms. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who walked away from talks last year, says the door remains open.

With a Monday deadline at hand, California officials have resumed direct talks with the Obama administration about joining a multibillion-dollar, multi-state mortgage settlement with the nation's largest banks, a source said Sunday.

The talk show host pays $12 million for the 4,088-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with beach access.

In one of the more talked-about transactions in town, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to daytime host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million.

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom house built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore lists for $2,875,000.

A decorative cast stone entrance opens to this restored Spanish Colonial Revival-style house in Pasadena's South Orange Grove area. Built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore, the house retains such original details as coffered wood ceilings and arched doorways.

They don't believe they can sell their property for what it's worth, so they're spending money on making their homes more comfortable.

Do you fit any of these descriptions?

A biennial research report by the National Assn. of Realtors indicates that a handful of real estate agents and brokers and their clients either don't know the law or don't care to follow it.

When it comes to lawsuits, real estate agents and brokers tangle mostly among themselves.

The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

 

The White House hopes to help millions of homeowners lower their monthly mortgage bill with a $5 billion to $10 billion plan to set up a streamlined refinancing program for people who are current on their payments.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities fell 1.3% in November from October as foreclosures continue to drag down the housing market.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.