[Thestral]

Hi all,

DP and I are looking at houses at the moment, we are purchasing our first home. I just have a question about building and pest inspections - when do you organise to get them done? Do you organise to get them done BEFORE you make an offer, before you sign any contracts, or is it something that is done during the settlement phase? (i.e. "sold pending finance" can it be "sold pending pest inspection" type thing?) How does this work?

The reason I ask is that I can't imagine spending hundreds of dollars EVERY TIME you are interested in a house if it turns out you won't even get up getting that house. You will end up paying for pest inspections on multiple houses!

Any help for a newbie would be greatly appreciated!

ETA: We are in Victoria.

This post has been edited by Thestral: 06/07/2012, 12:48 PM

[Bluenomi]

What state are you in?

In the ACT the seller has to get it done before the house goes on the markets and provides it to anyone who wants to see it. Whoever buys the house reimburses it as part of the settlement.

Otherwise it's generally done after an offer is made but it's results are part of the contract. If you did it before the offer was made the owners wouldn't probably not allow it!

[aliro]

In QLD, you get it done after your offer is accepted and you need to include 'subject to building and pest inspection' in the contract.

However I have read on here before that other states do things differently and you get an inspection done prior to offers and contracts.

[Thestral]

What state are you in?

In the ACT the seller has to get it done before the house goes on the markets and provides it to anyone who wants to see it. Whoever buys the house reimburses it as part of the settlement.

Otherwise it's generally done after an offer is made but it's results are part of the contract. If you did it before the offer was made the owners wouldn't probably not allow it!

I'm in VIC - generally sellers don't have them done beforehand (from what we've witnessed so far anyway!)

So I'm thinking, put in an offer, then get a pest/building inspection, then sign the contracts?

What about for auctions?

I'm really hoping in Vic it is not something that is done BEFORE offers are made, because like I said you could wind up doing multiple pest inspections for multiple properties if you do it before you make an offer and then your offer gets rejected!

This post has been edited by Thestral: 06/07/2012, 12:43 PM

[qak]

For auctions, you need to do it before you bid (in NSW)!
It can get very expensive ...

[Thestral]

Okay another question - can real estate agents recommend or help you find/organise a pest inspector?

Kinda depressing that you have to pay for one every time you plan on bidding or making an offer on a house! It often takes months of knocked back offers and failed auctions before you find a house, DP and I could end up spending hundreds! Argh!

This post has been edited by Thestral: 06/07/2012, 12:54 PM

[Joey11]

Okay another question - can real estate agents recommend or help you find/organise a pest inspector?

I wouldn't trust the vendor agent of the house - they are working for the seller and it's not in their interests to recommend you a super efficient inspector! Yes, I am an untrusting person!

It can be a good idea to get the inspection first, although it is expensive that way. The inspection may turn up things that affect what you would offer - i.e. that the house needs a new roof or other major works. Whereas if you've already put in an offer, it is harder to withdraw then renegotiate. You could also have an argument as to what an "acceptable" report is.

It is a pain, but you have to be prepared to spend a few thousand dollars (inspections, conveyancing etc) when you're buying something so very expensive.

[Ruby Victoria]

We are in Victoria and we made an offer "subject to pest and building inspection", which we had done within the week. it was worth themoney though - we kew there were problems but the 27 page report was thorough and lket us know that what needed to be done.

Find your own company, DO NOT go through the vendor.

[YandiGirl]

Okay another question - can real estate agents recommend or help you find/organise a pest inspector?

Being time poor when we bought our house we asked hte selling agent to arrange it. It was a fail on our behalf. We wouldn't do that again. As others have said, they are working for the vendor.

[aliro]

It can be a good idea to get the inspection first, although it is expensive that way. The inspection may turn up things that affect what you would offer - i.e. that the house needs a new roof or other major works. Whereas if you've already put in an offer, it is harder to withdraw then renegotiate. You could also have an argument as to what an "acceptable" report is.

You can re-negotiate the offer once the report comes back and you can easily pull out of a contract. You can pull out if there is a cracked tile if you want. If something unsuitable comes back then you can negotiate to either have it fixed by the owners or have the price that it would cost to fix deducted from the offer. If the owner doesn't want to do either then you can pull out of the contract.

The contract fell through on the first house we sold because there was some cracking in the brick work. We had already had the foundations fixed and had an engineers report to prove so, but the buyers freaked out and pulled out.

The last house we sold the buyers wanted every little thing that came up in the report fixed. (Not that anyone came back to check it was done! It was a rental investment) They weren't major and so we did them.