How long does an inspection take? Ways to speed up the inspection process
Here at Peek to Peak we know you are a busy person so here’s the quick answer:
The average home inspection should take between 1 ½ and 2 ½ hours. Generally a 1,000 square-foot home will take around 1 ½ hours. Every additional 500 square-feet of home will add an additional 30 minutes.
Below we discuss in detail the many factors that may affect how long an inspection takes and why you should not rush this important task. We will also discuss ways to help speed up this process, so that you can get your inspection done faster.
Let’s jump right in!
Factors that influence a how long a home inspection takes
1. The square footage, number of rooms and buildings on the property.
This one is pretty straightforward. The larger the house the more area there is to cover and the longer a home inspection will be. Typically a house has over 500 components to go over. For instance, when you sign up for our comprehensive home inspection one of the many things we check is the electrical system of the home. Part of this process is checking every single outlet in the home.
Let’s think of the average home, based on data from the US Census’ Survey of Construction (SOC), which states that 43 percent of single family homes built after 2015 have 3 bedrooms and 65 percent have two bathrooms. Add in a kitchen and living area and we are left with a total of 7 rooms. If each wall has two outlets we have around 56 outlets.
Now for the math question: If the average house has around 56 outlets and each outlet takes 15s for a home inspector to check, how long should a home inspection take?
We will save you the math headache:
56 outlets x 15 seconds each = 840 seconds or 14 minutes in total
For ONE part of the electrical system.
It’s necessary to know the good, the bad and the ugly of a home.
The good you keep, the bad you fix or replace and the ugly you update. By having an expert, like Dan MacPeek, thoroughly inspect your home you can figure out where best to allocate your money and plan for the future changes you wish to make.
2. The age of the home and the previous home owners
Another major factor that determines the length of a home inspection is the age of the home. Older homes are at the mercy of their previous owners. A house may have been meticulously well kept or recently renovated or the home may have been neglected or been vacant for years. In the latter examples there is a greater chance that outdated plumbing, roofing, electrical systems or water intrusion is present.
3. The design of the home
It’s helpful to know that a home inspection is a limited, noninvasive examination of the condition of a home. That means no inspector should be breaking into the walls to look at the inner workings of the home.
This is where choosing the right home inspector rewards the savvy homebuyer. Some houses were designed with basements, attics, various crawl spaces, yards and pools. Some are actually built into hillsides or made from containers! A good home inspector will look into the hard to reach areas. Your home inspector should come prepared with a ladder or step stool to see these often neglected areas of previous home owners.
At Peek to Peak Home Inspections we also offer drone services so that we can better inspect the health/condition of the home’s roof and exterior. Each one of these spaces will certainly add additional time for the expert inspector to get safely into and out of.
4. The experience of the inspector and agents involved
When it comes to mastery of a skill or trade the main things to consider are knowledge and efficiency. The more novice inspector will take longer as they may be new to the area the home is located in, inexperienced with different building practices, or just being overly cautious.
For example, Dan- pictured left, owner of Peek to Peak Home Inspections, has nearly three decades of experience in construction, is a master plumber and is a native to the Western, NY area. Learn more about Dan here.
This means that for the Western NY area he is a perfect home inspector for you. In contrast if you took him to Texas, he would need to brush up on Texas building codes, look up the area the home was located in and conduct research on the specific problems faced by Texas homeowners. He would still have trained eyes, but he would have to do research on the area to be more efficient on the day of your home inspection. It’s important to find the right inspector for you.
You don’t need to take our word for it!
With Dan there are no surprises! With 25+ years of experience, We will help you identify everything that you should know before you buy – including those tough to spot issues that creep up in later years – all at an affordable flat rate.
Tips and tricks to speed up your home inspection
Here’s the secret sauce for how you can speed up the home inspection, while not rushing the process: prepare ahead of time. Yep, it’s that simple.
See, the experience of your real estate agent and the sellers’ agent is also important. These agents can help speed up the process by preparing the maintenance receipts on the house beforehand. This will allow the inspector to gain a better understanding of the home’s history.
Lastly, the seller can be proactive about the accessibility of those difficult to access areas mentioned above. Having a clean and decluttered home will allow an inspector to move around. Allowing access to crawl spaces, attics and even furnaces can dramatically accelerate how long a home inspection takes.
Preparing for the day of your home inspection
The average home inspection should take between 1 ½ and 2 ½ hours. Generally a 1,000 square-foot home will take around 1 ½ hours. Every additional 500 square-feet of home will add an additional thirty minutes.
Here at Peek to Peak Home inspections our goal is to have every home inspection report into your hands that same day. That said please remember that late home inspections or more complicated inspections should take about 24-48 hours to be returned to you.
Excited? Ready to get started! Start by filling out our contact form. You can also call us at (716) 982-7253 or by emailing us at peektopeakhomeinspections@gmail.com.