I Actually Made an Offer On a House Without Requiring an Inspection. Here's Why

Usually, when you buy a house, you should include a few key contingencies in the contract. Those are conditions you or the home have to meet to be required to go through with the purchase.

If you're going to get a mortgage, you should include a financing contingency. This means your purchase is conditioned on being approved for a loan to pay for the house. And whether you're getting a home loan or not, you should generally put an inspection contingency in the contract. This gives you the right to walk away from the sale (or renegotiate the contract terms) if a professional inspector finds something wrong with it. 

When I made an offer to buy my home recently, I included a financing contingency since I will be getting a mortgage loan. But I did not make the home purchase based on an inspection. Here's why. 

The home is a fixer-upper and I already knew most of the issues

The biggest reason why I didn't require an inspection is because the home needs some major remodeling work as well as some repairs. I knew this going in -- it's pretty obvious when you see leaks on the ceiling and peeling paint on the siding. 

Because I plan on doing a lot of work, I brought a contractor through the house with me before I made an offer. I wanted to know the scope of the repairs and the contractor did more than most inspectors would to identify issues (like climbing in the attic and peeling up insulation to inspect the trusses for structural damage). 

I am already aware of the house's most expensive issues, like the need for a new roof (which can cost an average of $10,000, plus my contractor said it will cost me much more than that due to the home size and roof design). And I knew the seller wasn't going to be willing to negotiate the price down or make any repairs based on what an inspector discovered since the house wasn't even on the market -- I approached them and convinced them to sell it to me. 

Since an inspection report wasn't likely to reveal any issues that I didn't know about, and it wasn't going to help me get a better deal or convince the seller to do anything, there was no point in paying for a home inspection. 

Further, not including an inspection contingency strengthened my offer since the seller had already been approached by someone else to buy the property who backed out after the inspection. They didn't want to go through that again. 

Should you insist on an inspection when you're buying a house?

Not including an inspection report can definitely make your offer more attractive since sellers often worry an inspection will be used as a pretext to re-open negotiations, or will leave them arguing with a buyer over nitpicky problems. 

But, it can be very risky if you aren't planning on basically doing a gut remodel of the house. And even if you are planning on doing major repairs, you could still be left with surprises if you don't have a professional come through. You don't want to move into a property and be surprised by a roof leak that costs you tens of thousands of dollars when you aren't expecting it.

Ultimately, if you are buying a home in need of work, you need someone to come through it with you to help you understand the scope of the job. If you want a contractor to quote you on the work, that's not a bad thing, since the contractor often won't charge and you'll get an idea of how much the work will cost you. You probably won't be able to make your offer contingent on a contractor sign-off though, so you may have to do this part before making your offer. 

Whatever you decide, just be sure you don't buy a house without knowing what you're getting into.