Your Expectations: A building inspection as a result of a real estate contract is not meant as a negotiating tool--rather it's meant to identify hidden "defects" that are not apparent to the untrained eye.

Your Contract: Your purchase contract should allow you to have a home inspection by a qualified and reputable independent contractor, engineer, or home inspector, but not an untrained family friend. You usually have a specific time limit to have the inspection and to present the report and your unacceptable "defects" to the seller. The seller and you then have a specific time limit to negotiate repairs. Remember, maintenance items are not "defects", and generally, those items that are visible and obvious to you during your home visits prior to making an offer, are not correctable "defects" through the inspection. Nor are improvements considered 'defects'. Those items should be negotiated in the sale contract. And, keep in mind, what's "code" today may not have been "code" when the house was built, and unless the city has such an ordinance, the seller is not required to 'bring the condition up to code'.

You can abrogate your contract due to undisclosed and unacceptable structural defects, but the seller must be allowed to correct all others.

The Inspector: There are four types of inspections: Structural, Termite, Environmental, and General. Usually only the first three types are licensed by the state, but the most commonly used is the General, who recommends further inspection by any of the other if he/she finds evidence of a problem that he/she feels unqualified to assess.

The Inspection: You should accompany the inspector and ask questions of any thing you do not understand. The inspector should also objectively point out any problems; but he should also characterize the problem as 'structural', 'maintenance', or 'defect'. He should also explain the effect of the condition. For an inspector to offer to "get your money back" in repairs is totally unprofessional and unethical. Every inspector should know and follow the inspection provisions in the sale contract.

If an inspector tells you verbally that a defect is a structural defect, it must be identified as such in the written report without disclaimers, otherwise your abrogation rights will likely be limited or lost. He may however; recommend further inspection by a structural engineer.