"However,

what many buyers don't realize is that they should also perform a pre-closing

inspection, an additional check of the home, just prior to the closing,

which is often several weeks or months after that first home inspection,"

said Dwight Hurston, NULL-area director of HouseMaster, one of the leading

home inspection companies in the U.S. and Canada. "In addition to

the home being emptied of the seller's furnishings and floorcoverings,

much can happen to a home's systems and structure in the interim, particularly

after a harsh winter."

While homebuyers

are often encouraged to do a "walk through" with their realtor

a day or so before the actual closing date, they often don't know what

to look for other than to make sure that fixtures or appliances included

in the sale are still there. "They should also be looking for new

problems that may have developed or may have been previously unobservable,"

advised Hurston. "It's quite possible that problems or defects may

be undetected during the first inspection for various reasons, the most

likely one being that furnishings or rugs were unintentionally hiding

them.

"Perhaps

there was a large armoire or entertainment center against a wall blocking

evidence of a leak, a roofing problem hidden beneath a foot of winter's

freshly-fallen snow or a basement packed to the brim with the seller's

boxes and old furniture, making settling cracks hard to see," explained

Hurston, whose franchises have collectively performed more than one million

home inspections since 1979. "These problems would have been difficult

or even impossible to detect during the initial inspection."

A growing trend

To avoid any

surprises, more and more homebuyers are electing to bring their inspector

along on this "walk through" so he can check for things that

may not be evident to the untrained eye. A buyer may easily spot the evidence

of a leak, but the seriousness of that leak or a roofing or other systematic/structural

problem might not be detected, nor understood, without the presence of

a trained home inspector who can often analyze the problem on the spot.

"A pre-closing

inspection is basically a modified home inspection, and is recommended

to help further limit any surprises just before taking ownership. Once

you own the house, the problem becomes your problem and your unexpected,

added expense on top of everything else," added Hurston.

Hiring an inspector

to perform a pre-closing inspection is more commonly done when some of

the systems or areas of the home were originally unobservable, or more

than 30 to 60 days have elapsed since the original inspection. Generally,

a HouseMaster inspector will charge about $100-$150 to perform a pre-closing

inspection on a home he previously inspected a small investment that may

possibly save thousands of dollars in the long run.

"A pre-closing

inspection can provide additional peace of mind and a last recourse to

find costly, hidden problems within the home or property. It is like your

last bargaining chip," concluded Hurston.

For those buyers

who opt to re-inspect the home without the actual inspector, the home

experts at HouseMaster have created a new pre-closing checklist. By following

this checklist, the buyer knows exactly what to check for during this

important step in the closing process.

For a free

copy of the HouseMaster Pre-Closing Checklist, you can visit www.houseamaster.com/preclosing

or call the NULL-area office at 770-537-0155.

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