Is the Home Inspection Part of the Closing Costs?

While uncommon, once in a while we will be asked if the home inspection can be included in the closing costs, or if we can wait to bill for the inspection until closing. We at Ensure Home Inspections don’t do this, although we do understand that some home inspectors, especially naive or particularly desperate ones will. We have our reasons for this:

1) It becomes easier to lose track of the funds we are owed over the course of the transaction. It can take months, sometimes as much as 90 days for a sale to close. Its very easy for us to lose track of the bill and not get paid.

2) It becomes harder to collect from our clients. Just because our clients close on the sale does not mean that they are easily reachable or accessible. In most instances, we find that home-buyers wanting to to wrap up the inspection fee into the closing costs are trying to pay by personal check instead of by card, making it even more difficult to get paid.

3) It requires constant attention on our part to make sure the entire deal didn’t collapse. When a real estate transaction does fall through, we find that those home buyers we did put trust in to pay us at closing feel as though they shouldn’t have to pay. After all, they didn’t buy the home, so why should they have to pay us?

Because of these reasons, we do not include the home inspection fee as part of the closing costs, and require all payments rendered before the report is delivered.