property inspection

You can do the inspection yourself, but be prepared to get dirty and do some crawling around in roof spaces and under floorboards. Depending where the property is that you wish to buy, you can hire the services of a local reputable builder, or in bigger towns and/or cities you might try Archicentre. Try googling builders in the town concerned, or look in the local phone book as well.

Don't use a builder recommended by the agent selling the property – go to another agent for a recommendation if you must as the selling agent has a vested interest and this can be dangerous for you.

The cost can be a few hundred dollars, so unless the property is being auctioned then I would include the inspection as a condition clause of the purchase offer. If the property is being auctioned, try putting in an offer before, with the building and any other conditions in the offer.

Be careful with the wording as well. Simply putting "subject to satisfactory building inspection" is extremely limiting and can by interpretation cover only the frame of the building. You want to be very specific about what you want to satisfy you, eg; "subject to building, walls, guttering, widows, etc being in fair and reasonable condition given the age of the building".

If the report comes back that there is damage, then you can decide whether you want to proceed, or offer less based on said damage, or ignore the report and proceed anyway.

Make sure the date for the completion of the inspection is from when the Vendor signs the contract, and ask for at least 7 days to complete it just in case the inspectors are very busy in the area.

You are the person with the cheque book, so write your own rules and do it your way – not the agent's or the Vendor's. They (the agent) will try to steer you down the path of least resistence for them, and will try to talk you out of most things that will cause delays and/or obstacles for them and the Vendor.

There will be another "deal of the century" later on today somewhere else.