A buyer in a prewar building on the Upper West Side once handed me a list his brother-in-law had drawn up after buying a house in another state entirely: fifty-some line items, half of them things no home inspection touches. Radon testing wasn’t on it. Termite activity wasn’t on it. But “check if the ghost stories are true” was, in his handwriting, only half joking. I get some version of that list often enough that it’s worth writing down, plainly, what a pre-purchase inspection is actually built to catch, and where the boundary sits.
The core of the job: systems and safety, not cosmetics
A standard pre-purchase inspection covers the roof, structure, exterior, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and the interior systems you can reasonably access without opening walls. On a typical three-bedroom house that’s a two-to-three-hour walkthrough, sometimes closer to four if the mechanicals are old or the crawl space is tight. The report isn’t a pass/fail grade on the house. It’s a description of condition at the moment someone looked, with enough detail that a buyer can decide what to do next. Paint color, layout, whether the kitchen feels dated — none of that belongs in the report, and if you see it there, the inspector wandered off task.
What gets flagged versus what gets measured
Some things get a plain visual call: a double-tapped breaker, a missing handrail, shingles that are curling at the tabs. Others get an actual number attached — moisture content in a joist, slope on a bathroom floor, clearance under a beam. The distinction matters because buyers often read every line as equally urgent. A loose stair tread and a sagging ridge beam are not the same category of problem, even though they might sit two lines apart in the same report.
What a general inspection does not include
Termite and wood-destroying insect inspections are usually a separate scope, often required by the lender in older housing stock even when the buyer wasn’t planning to pay for one. Mold testing, radon testing, sewer scoping, and pool equipment are add-ons in most markets, not part of the base walkthrough. Structural engineering opinions are outside scope too — if a general inspector sees something in the foundation that worries them, the right move is a referral, not a verdict. I’ve seen inspectors overstep that line to sound thorough, and it usually creates more confusion than it resolves.
Why “doesn’t cover” isn’t the same as “doesn’t matter”
Buyers sometimes hear that something is out of scope and assume it’s unimportant. It’s the opposite, usually. Sewer scoping gets excluded from a base inspection precisely because a cracked clay lateral under a 1920s foundation can run $4,000 to $12,000 to replace, and that’s not a number an inspector wants to guess at through a manhole. The exclusion is there because the item is expensive and specialized enough to need its own dedicated look, not because it’s minor.
Cost and timing, so the number doesn’t surprise anyone
Expect $400 to $650 for a base inspection on an average single-family home in most metro markets, more if you’re adding radon, termite, or sewer scope on top. Scheduling it inside the option period, not after, is what actually protects a buyer — a report that arrives after contingencies have expired is a very expensive piece of trivia. The HUD homebuying resources lay out how inspection contingencies typically fit into a purchase timeline, which is worth a read before you’re standing in the driveway with an inspector who’s already found something.
Frequently asked questions
Does a pre-purchase inspection guarantee the house has no hidden problems? No. It documents what’s visible and accessible on the day of the walkthrough. Anything behind finished walls, under slab, or inside a sealed system is outside what a visual inspection can see.
Should I skip the inspection on a newer build? New construction gets missed items too — I’ve flagged reversed hot and cold lines and unsecured gas connections in houses less than five years old. Age lowers the odds of certain defects, it doesn’t remove the case for looking.
What’s the difference between a home inspection and an appraisal? An appraisal establishes value for the lender. An inspection describes condition for the buyer. They ask different questions and often don’t even involve the same walkthrough. If you want the mechanics of reading what comes back, going through the report section by section is the next useful step.