Why Have a Roof Inspection?
When considering inspections to have during due diligence in escrow, it’s common to start with a home inspection and pest inspection. If a septic tank is present, an inspection for that would be appropriate as well. Home inspections provide an overview of the condition of the home, and depending on what the inspector calls out, additional inspections might be necessary. For example, they may find issues with electrical and recommend you seek guidance from an electrician, or a chimney sweep, soil engineer etc. . . Some home inspectors provide general overview of the roof. It can be helpful to have a roofer review the condition in greater detail to get a full understanding. Roof inspections are a good investment at an affordable price, and we recommend them in our market with the strong rains we’ve had on the Monterey Peninsula over the last couple of years.
In a recent transaction representing buyers, we were informed that the roof of the home they were buying was only a few years old. It was alarming when the roof inspection came back and indicated that the entire roof had been done without permits and was poorly executed. We didn’t stop at the roof inspection – we sought out opinions from a contractor as well as the home inspector about the roof, and they all informed us of the condition. Getting multiple opinions on this gave us the leverage we needed to negotiate. Just because a roof is relatively new does not mean it was done right. In fact, if we hadn’t been able to negotiate the roof for the buyers, I’m not sure they would have been interested in carrying out the purchase.
The due diligence period can go by very quickly, and inspectors often have busy schedules, so it’s important to stay ahead of the curve and get inspections scheduled when escrow begins. For a full walkthrough on how to buy a property on the Monterey Peninsula, see our guide here. As always let us know if you have any questions. We hope this gives you a better idea of the importance of having a roof inspection when buying a home!