Home Inspections RSS Feed

There is one thing that you will need one buying a home to protect you from buying a bad house. Of course, you will always need a mortgage to buy the house, but the home inspection is your insurance. An inspection finds potential problems with a house. It lets you walk away entirely, or renegotiate for a better selling price or for the seller to fix the problems before you buy the house. A home inspection is a really good tool to make sure the house you are buying is up to muster. More than that, a home inspection is often required by the mortgage lender.

So you need a home inspection. The problem is finding a good home inspector. Idaho doesn’t require that home inspectors here are licensed. The state doesn’t regulate them at all. Finding the…

When you’re buying a home, you should have a home inspection done. It’s probably the single most important expense you will incur when buying your home. A home inspection is like a physical for your house, in that the home inspector will go over your entire home, crawlspace, attic, and more, to see if anything is wrong with the house. If you’re buying an older home, you’ll definitely want to get a home inspection done. You might discover that there are some major items that need to be repaired, and you can then negotiate for the seller to either fix them, or come down on the selling price so that you can fix them.

Because home inspections are so important, you shouldn’t take them lightly. This is the final defense before you buy the house to make sure…

Thinking of moving to Boise or the surrounding areas? When it comes to big events and even bigger purchases in your life, nothing compares with the excitement (and often terror) of buying a house. But you can do it. You'll be able to survive the house hunt, appraisals, inspections, and bidding wars, and you will come out on top. With the help of your Hughes Group real estate agent, you will find the house of your dreams. You'll be super excited to move in.

You should be excited. Buying a house is a big deal, and after you close on the house, the real excitement and adventure begins. Now, you get to start working on turning that house into your home. If you aren’t moving in right away, because of an apartment lease, or you’re still selling your previous…

So, you have finally done it-- you have decided to sell your home. You probably are relieved that you have finally gotten to this point, but you may be asking yourself, ‘what now?’. Well, once you have found a real estate agent, it’s time to prepare your home to be shown. Your home can be shown to prospective buyers in many ways, but the one that needs the most preparation and the most work is an open house. Like the name suggests, your home will be open for the public to tour and see. This can be a great opportunity to advertise your home, but there are some key things that need to be done before you start inflating balloons and setting up signs. 

Go in with a plan 

Like most ventures, an open house is an event that takes a great amount of…

Ah, the good old home inspection. It's a stressful thing. Even for the home inspector himself/herself. It's not an easy job, and requires a lot of well-versed knowledge & often times more than a little bit of psychology. The home inspector is often entering homes of strangers who may not always be happy... Hostile even. Inspectors should be experts concerning hundreds if not thousands of home characteristics including local codes such as electrical, plumbing, building/structural, and much more. We all know that the home inspection is a critical element of every home purchase and that buyers are well advised to get a professional on the task. The home inspection timing comes in many times just after difficult negotiations and often after months of efforts…

When you are out looking for that perfect Idaho home, what are you actually looking at?  Do you focus on the cute adorable pictures on the wall... or the random locations of the throw rugs throughout the house (possibly covering floor damage)?  Within a few short minutes of viewing a home in Idaho, you can determine whether there are some red flags you need to be concerned about in regard to the condition of the home.  These are so simple!  However, even though these may be obvious, it is still very important that you have a professional home inspection during the escrow period and make sure that you retain the right to cancel the contract based on your approval/disapproval of the inspection report. 

5 Red Flags of Property Deficiencies you can find…

In the dead of winter, spring seems like a distant dream. Though it may seem far away, it's not too late to start gearing up for spring. Just as there are things you need to do to 'winterize' your home, there are also some things you should do to prepare your home for spring.

1) Clean
Cleaning is simple, yet effective, and it's a great first step to preparing for spring time. Spring cleaning isn't just something that your parents joke about, it's something that should be done to transform an dreary, winterized home into a bright lively dwelling. Clean everything. Clean what you might not normally clean. Scrub the walls, baseboards and cabinets, vacuum and dust under everything and replace broken things.

The biggest thing you can do to help your…

There is nothing quite as wonderful as walking into a house that feels and smells fresh. People who might be looking to buying your house will be be aware of every detail. Covering up an odor is not a solution- it often just adds to the sensory unpleasantness. There are many contributions to the smell of your house, both good and bad. The key is to increase the good smells and get rid of the bad smells. Here are some areas that might be overlooked.

The first thing you need to do to get rid of the bad smells is identifying the source of the smell and getting rid of it. Reading this, you might say to yourself, "Well, duh." Though this is an obvious conclusion it is often overlooked when people are trying to find a solution to the problem. Many people…

There are a few things you can do to speed up the process, if you need to sell your home quickly.

The first step in getting your home ready to sell is being prepared for a buyer’s visit. Imagine what you want your house to be as a whole and then make every detail contribute to the whole. Make every room in the house look its best. The interior and exterior of your home should be in tip-top shape.

Interior
The first thing you need to do to the interior is clean. Though this step may seem obvious, it is imperative. Clean everything on the surface and also perform a deep cleaning.

After the basic cleaning is done, organize your closets and other storage places. If you clear out half of everything in storage spaces, it will invite the buyer to imagine…

Both resale and new construction homes have advantages and disadvantages, and when it comes to deciding which one is right for you, it's a matter of looking at your individual needs and desires.

With so many important considerations to make over such a big decision, it can be helpful to make a list of the things you want and need in your new home and stack it up against the specs offered by both resale and new construction homes. You might be surprised by what you find. Here we'll take a look at the benefits of both resale homes and new construction homes:

Benefits of a Resale Home

Today's buyers, whether they're in the market for a new or resale home, expect to buy a home that's in good shape and one that will continue to cater to their needs…