The simple answer is: Yes. But there’s more to it.

The real question is, what value do you gain?

The average inspection will cost around $500-700, depending on the age and size of the house. The average GTA home price currently hovers near the $1M mark. When you do the math, spending less than 1% of the total purchase price is a no-brainer to give homebuyers peace of mind.

Buying a home isn’t just a transaction. It’s an emotional experience. How many of you have walked into a home showing and fallen in love with a stunning kitchen or master bathroom? Meanwhile, you neglected to notice the smell in the basement or the 70’s-era mechanical room. With visions of gourmet meals being made in the marbled backsplash chef’s kitchen, who has the bandwidth to think of the furnace? That’s what service techs are for, right? And remember the coffered ceilings in the bedroom? That’s where the real value for money is...right?

Home Inspections offer a great high level overview of the bones of the house…..but they don’t go much deeper than that. And they aren’t all the same.

I make sure that all of my clients understand exactly what a home inspection report will deliver - and what they won’t. I always manage expectations before booking an inspection for my buyers. Remember - until recently, the home inspection industry was not regulated. It was only in 2017 that the Ontario Government passed The Home Inspection Act in 2017.

The Act ensured that reports and contracts met specific requirements, and that the performance of the inspectors themselves conformed to certain standards. Today, all inspectors must be licensed and insured. Prior to 2017, the industry was the wild west! Trust me - I could write a book about my inspection experiences. When I bought my first house,the guys for hire were so shady that I had a developer friend inspect the place. He was the only one I could trust!

Insured? Check! Licensed? Check! All good, right? Wrong. If only it were that simple. Now you’ve got the matter of who to actually hire. The big guns? Or the independent?

You could choose a large, corporate group like Carson Dunlop. They’ve been around for years and are one of the most trusted names in the business. They’ll walk you through the process and throw in the Home Owners Guide alongside the final report. The guide clocks in at around 200-pages, so you’re in for some reading. In some cases the inspector will walk you through step-by-step. But in a big company like that, you don’t always get lucky. Some inspectors are fabulous. Others, less so.

Alternatively, you could hire an independent. In this case, the person you hire is the person you get. If they’re great, they’re great. They’ll perform the same inspection as a larger outfit, but in my experience they tend to get a little more down and dirty than those constricted by company rules. They may not throw in the heavy tome at the end, but the right person will go out on a limb for their customers.

The key to both types of inspectors isn’t just what they tell you - it’s what they don’t say. They don’t identify mould. That requires a mould expert. They won’t inspect pools or hot tubs. That requires a pool expert. You get the gist of it.

Home inspectors cannot realistically tell you what lies behind the walls of a home. Or if there’s a crack on the foundation. Or the roof tiles will fly off in a windstorm. Basically, none of the big stuff is covered. The process of buying any home with or without a home inspection has been, and will always be Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware.

At the end of the day, due diligence is never a bad idea. Buying a home is one of the biggest purchases you will make, so it’s worth making that extra investment. For first-time buyers it’s an excellent introduction to how a house actually works. While it isn’t a guarantee that your house will be problem-free, I can guarantee that you’ll learn something, and gain a little peace of mind along the way.