Why it matters

The numbers say the same thing I do: know before you sign.

National data, local inspector. Sources are listed under each figure.

56%

had no budget for it

56 percent of homeowners had no budget at all for the repairs that came up in their first year. Buyers of homes built before 1980 face up to $3,200 in unexpected first-year maintenance, roughly four times what buyers of newer homes face, largely from deferred maintenance and aging systems that were not obvious during a showing.

Sources: American Home Shield survey of 1,001 homeowners, March 2025. Pearl 2026 Home Maintenance Cost Report, drawing on the U.S. Census American Housing Survey and Bankrate.

A showing is twenty minutes spent looking at the kitchen. An inspection is a visual, non-invasive examination of the whole property, and I spend most of it in the attic, on the roof, under the house, and at the electrical panel. That is where the expensive problems live, and it is exactly where nobody looks before they make an offer.

$6,548

per year, on average

Homeowners spend an average of $6,548 per year on maintenance and repairs. The working guideline is about 1 percent of the home's value annually for newer homes, and 1.5 to 2 percent for homes over 20 years old.

Source: Angi State of Home Spending, 2025 edition.

You are not just buying a house, you are signing up for its condition. A good inspection tells you what you are signing up for.

1 in 5

still skips the inspection

Through 2024, between 19 and 25 percent of buyers waived their inspection contingency, according to the National Association of Realtors Confidence Index. The rate peaked near 30 percent in mid-2022 and was still around 18 percent as of August 2025.

Sources: National Association of Realtors, Realtors Confidence Index, 2024. Redfin analysis citing NAR data, August 2025.

Waiving the inspection saves a few hundred dollars on the front end. It does not make the problems go away. It just means you meet them later, alone, and at full price.

Cheap versus thorough

What you are actually paying for

I am not going to tell you other inspectors are bad at their jobs. Most of them are trying to do right by their clients.

What I will tell you is that the difference between inspections is time and knowledge. Time on the property, time in the attic, time on the roof, and time explaining the report to you afterward. Knowledge of how the thing was built in the first place, which tells you whether what you are looking at is normal wear or the beginning of a real problem.

That is the whole difference. It is not a longer report. Anybody can generate a longer report. It is whether the person writing it has been inside enough of these houses to know what he is looking at.

If price is the only thing separating two inspectors in your mind, ask both of them how long they spend on site and how many years they spent building. The answers will tell you more than the quote will.

Meet the problems before you own them.

Schedule an Inspection