Why Choose Your Own Engineer to Review Your Potential Home?

The truth of the situation is that many potential real estate buyers buy through a real estate agent. The majority of these real estate agents are found through reference and internet searches of the area. Even with the advent of Zillow and other real estate sites and apps, 88% of home purchases are made through a real estate agent (https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/highlights-from-the-profile-of-home-buyers-and-sellers) with only 10% buying from a builder or a previous owner. The primary factor for the customer to use a real estate agent is to "finding the right home to purchase" and then to review terms. However, what is the motivation for real estate agents in these transactions? Often, it is productivity and efficiency, or turnover. They care about time on market and how much effort is needed to get a sale through. This is not to blame the real estate agent for their motivations or to say it is all real estate agents, however it does work against the real estate buyer in many instances, such as with inspections.

After doing thousands of inspections over the years, Gaines Engineering is very familiar with the buying process. These processes, of course, differ between the commercial and the residential side of real estate. However, the following process will focus on the residential side as this post is to help new home buyers in buying a home.

The process is typically as follows:

1. Find real estate agent

2. Find home that meets your budget and standard based upon a walkthrough and online review.

3. Contact the seller.

4. Submit offer with terms, usually a clause to review structure with inspections before sale.

5. Home inspection referred by real estate agent

6. If problem arises, inspection by engineer, HVAC contractor, or roofing professional

7. Final sale

Some of these steps are abbreviated, but you get the gist of the steps. The issue arises for home inspections and professional inspections such as engineers. Often the primary motivation is to choose engineers and other professionals that help to sell the homes as quickly as possible. Some engineers will often either, not review the home and use pictures, or will be more likely to say that an issue is non-structural in order to move a sale. At Gaines Engineering, we pride ourselves on letting homeowners know all of the issues that arise with the structure during our inspections, and this can often lead to delays with the sale. Foundation and structural issues often cause between $5k to $15k and can greatly affect your financial future , so finding the correct professional to review your structure is key.

Will my home inspector catch the issue?

Home inspectors cannot tell you many things that are necessary for the home. Often a home inspection will only tell you to refer to another professional to do an actual review of the home systems or will tell you minor cosmetic issues that often just in need of a trip to Sherwin-Williams of a pressure wash. Do you want to know how stiff your floors are and if this was a structural stiff arrangement? Do you want to know if the structure can be modified? Do you want to know about potential issues with the structure that may arise for the soil type? The home inspectors do not have the training or experience to discuss these issues and often home inspections can be relatively superfluous.

What do we recommend when buying a new home?

Find professional inspectors to review your potential new home that are on your side.

The three main systems that cost the most and contribute the most to the maintenance are as follows:

• Structural and foundation issues

• HVAC issues (Heating and Air Conditioning)

• Roofing replacement and repair

Often engineers who have conducted insurance roofing inspections, such as Gaines Engineering, can review your roof along with your structure and foundation, and HVAC contractor often work with engineers on larger design projects and Gaines Engineering can refer you to these contractors.

However, if you would like to use another engineering company look for the following:

• Professional Engineering License for your respective state.

• Active design engineer that works with current designs and materials.

• Experience with small-frame timber design.

• High rating with the SCLLR, often can be looked up by name and engineer license number.

• HAAG certification or equivalent.

Gaines Engineering hopes this post was helpful to you and that you are able to make informed buying decisions in the future. We personally charge $750.00 dollars for a structural and foundation inspection and typical HVAC review costs around $250-$300.

Thank you for reading!