A Home Inspection is a common practice in the home buying process. The purpose of the inspection is to allow the prospective buyer the opportunity to learn about the house they hope to own from a professional knowledgeable in all aspects of the home's construction and systems, preferably a licensed home inspector. However, a home inspection is not required to buy a home, but most contracts to purchase have a provision for an inspection contingency built-in.
The buyer has three options under most home inspection contingencies: They are fine with what they learned and move forward. They could withdraw and terminate the agreement if they find something or several things they didn't know about and don't want to take on and get their deposit back or ask the seller to address the issue(s) uncovered from the inspection or give them a credit.
In this competitive market, some offers (contract to purchase) come through with language that states, 'home inspection for informational purposes only' to entice the seller to accept their offer. This means they will have the house inspected but reserve the right to back out of the offer or accept what they learned and move forward. The only difference is they will not ask the seller to address any repairs. To be clear, it still is a contingency. They could back out. They are only removing the option to ask the seller to address repairs. It is still a risk for the seller.
The only way to remove this risk is if the buyer waives the inspection and they do not make it a contingency. They can still have an inspection but only for their information.
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