Refinancing Your Home: Do You Need A Property Inspection?

Refinancing your home is a great way to either lower your interest rate and save long-term, or obtain funds to do repairs or remodels using the equity you’ve earned on your home. It’s a great time to do it – when the real estate market is booming, and it always makes sense to keep your home in tip-top shape maintenance wise, as well as updated with modern appliances, flooring and fresh paint. Or perhaps you need a big-ticket repair, like air conditioning or foundation. Maybe you’re considering listing your home – and you want it to look nice. And of course, even if you plan to stay for a while longer – nobody wants a home that looks (and feels) dilapidated.

So do you need a property inspection when refinancing a mortgage?

Often, the process and services of a home inspection and a home appraisal are confused:  what we do, at Grissom Inspections — is property inspections, and we do not assign any value to the property. Our main job, as professional property and real estate inspectors, is to help sellers and buyers understand the condition of their home and property, exposure needed repairs and code violations or issues that might be costly later. It’s about knowing what you are getting into – fully, with regard to home and property ownership. When refinancing an FHA or conventional home mortgage, a lender may require an appraisal and the same inspections as it does for financing a new home purchase. However, a “home inspection,” similar to the inspection you obtained when you bought your home, is never required.

Could a property inspection be done without buying, selling or refinancing?

Yes – in fact, we’d think that the savvy home owner would invest in a knowledgeable property inspection service from time to time as a preventative measure to stay on top of the less fun more expensive part of home-ownership. In act, we have tons of clients – commercial owners and individuals who own real estate (rental properties, and similar) that do this often to make sure they are ahead of exorbitant repair costs (due to something going on too long) and other costly ‘smaller situations’ that turn into larger ones because it was not reported or noticed by a tenant.

Whatever your need for a home inspector in Dallas, or Plano and surrounding areas – it’s important to know exactly what you are getting and what to expect during a home inspection. You can rely on Grissom Inspections. Friendly, highly reviewed professionals.