A Kelowna home inspector is sounding the alarm. He says the real estate market is squeezing inspections from the home buying process.
Bidding wars are driving inspection clauses out of the negotiation — something enticing for a home seller.
“People aren’t getting their (prospective) homes inspected,” said Dwight Carroll, an Akela Home and Building Inspection’ home inspector.
“Typically in year’s past, I would do a few home inspections per week. Now its a couple a month.”
Carroll said skipping a home inspection could cost home buyers big in the long run.
“You can’t go back to the seller and say, ‘Hey, the roof is no good or the plumbing is bad.’ They don’t care, it’s a done deal,” said Carroll.
Recently, the B.C. Government announced it will be introducing a “cooling-off” period that aims to give home buyers more time to change their minds about a sale. It’s called the Homebuyer Protection Period.
Real estate agents says the government response may be too late.
“(They should) be on top of it when its happening … but that can’t happen a lot of the time with the government,” said Steve Wright, a Royal LePage Kelowna real estate agent.
“Rather then react and then the market (is) corrected, you’re too late to the party. The market is already starting to cool, we are seeing it here in Kelowna, the single family homes between $1M and $2M are taking longer to sell.”
According to statistics from The Home Inspector Licensing Consultation Report, published by the BC government, benefits for home buyers who get home inspections include:
- 19% identified issues that the seller fixed
- 10% prevented the home purchase
- 14% saved money
- 57% created a peace of mind
Wright said he sees an easy fix to this issue.
“My thought is just make mandatory subject to financing, mandatory subject to home inspection and put a seven-day business (pause) on it,” said Wright.
“Now, the buyer has an opportunity to get that due diligence done, and make sure they got their financing in place and the seller is not being held up in a rising market.”
B.C. will be the first province to implement The Homebuyer Protection Period for resale properties and newly constructed homes.