Costs of home inspections will vary from one locale to another.   Below are typical costs incurred in Placer County and Nevada County, two counties in northern California characterized by small towns and farms.  These are the physical inspections of the property.   Other investigations may involve locating documents such as permits, examining title reports, and so on, and there may also be costs associated with those investigations, but the costs are not the subject of this article.

Whole House Inspection

• This cost varies according to the size of the home, number of stories, and whether there are crawls (attic and below the house)

• $350-500

Wood Destroying Pest Inspection

• $125-200

Heating and Air Inspection

• $75-100

Chimney Sweep and Inspection

• $100-200

Roof Inspection

• $75-100

Corner Marking

• $200-400

Septic Pump and Inspection

• $600-800

Well Test

• Gallons per minute (GPM)

• Total coliform bacteria

• E. Coli contamination

• $400-500

Mineral Tests for Well Water

• The laboratory has a menu of tests that can be ordered in addition to the yield and potability studies that come with the basic well test

• Iron, sodium, magnesium, mercury, arsenic, etc

• $50-250

Electrical, Plumbing and other specialized inspections

• Typically these inspections incur hourly costs as customary for the area.

• $60-80 per hour

Not all inspections will be appropriate for all properties.  In an extreme case involving a large two-story farm house on rural property with a suspicious well, ambiguous  property boundaries, and a whole house inspection that called out for additional specialized inspections,  the total price tag for all inspections could run as high as:

$3,000

For a newer, single story home on a quarter acre subdivision lot, with piped water and a sewer system, the minimum inspection costs could run as low as:

$475

Can inspections, any and all, be waived by the buyer?  Yes.  Yes, but . . . the seller and both agents become exposed to great risks for non-disclosure and abrogation of fiduciary duty.  Even if the buyer signs waivers filled with dire warnings, even if the buyer assures the agents that she knows what he’s doing and accepts the property “as is,” . . . when a serious problem arises, “His Honor” is going to side with the poor, inexperienced buyer, and he’s going to lower the boom on the seller and the agents who should have known better than to let the buyer sign such waivers and stumble into a detrimental transaction.

There’s an old real estate saying I like to put on the bottom of my correspondence:

“What’s good for the buyer is good for the seller.  What’s good for the seller is good for the buyer.” 

What’s good for the buyer and seller is also good for the real estate agents.

Appropriate inspections are good for everybody.