Never Cancel a Home Inspection for Rain

If you're buying a home from a private seller you could be subject to any litany of strange dealings, and canceling a home inspection is a HUGE red flag.  Why would anyone cancel a home inspection?

At the time of this blog post the market in Cleveland is considered a "sellers market" with 64% of homes sold under 30 days and 57% at asking price or over asking price. Many times these conditions lead sellers to (mistakenly) assume they should cut out a Realtor all together and sell their home privately, or For Sale By Owner. If you're buying from a private seller, or a For Sale By Owner (FSBO), check out these 10 red flags. We would like to add that canceling a home inspection is another big one.

From Mike Vakos, owner and head home inspector:

I'm here at a house in Cleveland and it's raining outside right now as you can see how the gutters perform. Of course we can try to look at the slope - see if they're clogged, see if any of them are loose or damaged,  but we really can't see if they leak (when it's not raining). The nice thing about doing an inspection in the rain is that you can see gutters like this where it's not slowed properly and ... dripping down there. It's going to start  ponding all here around the foundation and that's how you get water in your basement.  So although it's not fun to do inspections in the rain for home inspectors it's actually a great time to do inspections for the buyer.  You can see if the basement has moisture, how the gutters are performing, so on and so forth. ... a rainy day can actually point out issues and things with the basement, as well as gutters, (that we wouldn't notice on a day without rain).