What exactly is a Home Inspection Summary? This is an interesting question. On face value, it would appear that the Home Inspector selects the most important deficiencies from all of the deficiencies on the entire report. This approach might help a prospective home buyer when choosing which repairs to ask the seller to complete.
It is my opinion that a thorough inspection of the structure and its systems will reveal many, many conditions that are just fine. There is simply little or nothing wrong with many of the structural or mechanical systems. It is those structural and mechanical systems that do have deficiencies that comprise the written Inspection Report.
Therefore, the Inspection Report itself is the Summary. Any further attempt at a ‘Summary’ simply minimizes the rest of the information that is supplied in the entire Inspection Report.
Many Home Inspectors feel pressure from the real estate agents to not ‘scare’ the buyer. With a Summary, there is further opportunity to not ‘scare’ the buyer.
In 25 years of performing Home Inspections for home buyers, I can tell you that most buyers know exactly what is important to them and their families.
If the house has a failed foundation, a hail damaged roof, rotted walls, or an electrocution hazard, the information speaks for itself.
I encourage my clients to ask as many questions as they need to. This helps them gain a thorough understanding of the signifance of a particular deficiency.
