Why Home Buyers Should Arrive In The First Hour Of A Home Inspection

Waiting until the final minutes of a home inspection sounds convenient, but it’s one of the fastest ways to leave with unanswered questions and unnecessary anxiety. We break down why “just show up for the summary” often backfires: the inspector is finishing notes, packing up equipment, locking up the property, and trying to hand the home back to the seller on time. When you arrive late, you’re asking for a full tour of findings during the exact window when there’s the least time to give it.

We walk through the better strategy for home buyers: arrive during the first hour. That early check-in lets us hear your top concerns, confirm what we’ll focus on, and explain how our inspection sequence works so the process stays efficient and thorough. While we work, you can measure rooms, visualize your move, and get comfortable with the space. When something bigger than the usual small stuff shows up, we’ll wave you over at the right moment and explain what you’re seeing.

We also call out two major red flags in real estate: an inspection company that won’t let you attend, or an agent who tells you to skip the inspection. You’re buying the house and paying for the home inspection, so you deserve access, transparency, and the chance to ask questions. Finally, we share how to be present without distracting the process, plus why seeing issues like basement moisture in person can keep a fix in proper perspective.

If you want practical home inspection tips, buyer guidance, and a clearer inspection day checklist, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s buying a home, and leave a review. What timing have you been told to follow for inspections?

Transcript

Should Buyers Arrive Early?

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everybody, welcome. And this is Jim, of course, Laura's here.

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Hello, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Alright, so should buyers. Should home buyers arrive at the first half of the home inspection time slot? And because we have some agents who tell them, hey, go at the very end, get the summary. Get the summary, get the wrap-up. Personally, we think that's bullshit.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

It has caused more problems than it than it's worth.

Why Late Arrivals Create Problems

SPEAKER_00 0:34

So, first of all, if we are inspecting a house, Laura, we have we have an amount of time slot to get that done. And because the houses most often they are occupied. Right. The seller wants to get back to their house for their kids, their family to have dinner, get ready for bed or whatever, what they got going on.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

We've had people that were driving around with pets and wanting to know when we were done because they they didn't want the pets in the house.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Yeah, well, yeah, and that to me that is makes sense. As a former paper boy, when I was a kid, I was a paper boy, I got bit a couple times from dogs, definitely threatened many times by dogs. So I appreciate having the dogs gone. If they're gonna be in a cage, that's fine, but make sure it's not a dog that knows how to get out of said cage. Yes, and make sure this is the inspector knows hey, there's there'll be a dog, he will be in the garage, he's who we'll be in a kennel. That's cool. Don't let him loose in the garage, and then I can't inspect the garage.

The First Hour Game Plan

SPEAKER_00 1:39

But anyway, besides that, we think it's best for the the home buyer to get there during the first hour of the inspection. Because too many times, let's say it is a one to four time slot. A person gets there quarter till four.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

We have fifteen minutes and that's it. And we have to We have to pack up our stuff, we have to lock up the house, we have to do our video. That's what the last 15 minutes is for.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Well, and if we're still there.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

If we're still there.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

So, but say somebody gets in 15 minutes left and they want to go through all everything we found, and they go, Hey, can you show that to me? Can you show me this? Can you go show me that now? Can I you got pictures? Can you go show me where that one's at? Like, dude, we don't know. You should have been here from the beginning. We do not have the time to show you all these things and then give the house back to the seller in the appropriate amount of time. So, what we recommend is the home buyer get there during the first hour of the inspection. We introduce ourselves, we ask them what their concerns are, and that way we can assure them, yes, we will look at that, and we will make a note, at least a mellow note as where what can concerns they really have. Sometimes they're concerned about something that we would never look at because it's it doesn't mean anything to us. I've had that before. But we can at least address those and know exactly what to focus on. And then, and here's what I like to tell them is if I come across anything larger than the normal small stuff, I will wave you over. But this is the buyer's time to look around, measure, visualize their stuff moving in. If you're an agent, you want them to be able to visualize, seeing themselves living there if there's stuff.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

That helps everything in the long run. I mean, the that they start to see that house is theirs.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Yeah, and and I do tell the buyer, listen, you can follow me if you want. You know, you're you're gonna get bored. Pretty much everybody gets bored of what I'm doing at some point, so don't feel bad. I'll wave you over and see anything more than the usual little little things. But it's good though, if we see some issue and maybe what we feel like, all right, this person's gonna need this explained to them, we'll walk them over and show them. And it's not like we're trying to review everything in the last 15 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

No, it's it we take the time to go over things, we take the time to answer questions, and I think some of the inspectors do it differently. Like some do it at the end of a section, some do it as they see things. So it depends upon the inspector and how they do it, but they'll tell you that in the beginning. Yeah, and part of their their talk.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Yeah, and usually what I do, I just if it's just a minor normal stuff, I don't mention it to them except when I come across them because they're measuring, and I'm coming across my hey, just another electrical panel that looked good. I'm now doing the outless windows doors as I go around the interior person of the house. I'll let them know what's going on, and if I found anything unused or not, or tell them, hey, I think it looks good, or found found um a little bit of moisture in the half bathroom toilet, just needs a wax ring. That's it. I keep moving. Yep.

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SPEAKER_01 4:55

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The Risk Of Missing The Inspector

SPEAKER_00 5:21

But another issue with people waiting until the last you know half hour, 15 minutes to get to the house inspection is the spectrum might be gone.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

That is a very valid concern.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

We give ourselves typically three-hour time slot because we do other things as well. We might be doing termite check, uh, termite inspection, radon. Racing radon, radon, which takes a good amount of time to set that up. We could be doing gas leak, mold testing. Who knows what we're all added was added onto that inspection. And I had a house the other day, actually yesterday, it was it was a final walkthrough inspection.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

So a new house just finished up. There were not that many things going on. There were some things that needed that really needed to be addressed, certainly. But I was alone the whole time, and there are fewer issues, which really helped speed up the the inspection. If that buyer, who apparently net wasn't showing up anyway, if they had what am I gonna do? I'm am I gonna wait around an hour waiting for a person to show up to explain something to them? And then and there's a good They may not even show up. Yeah, there's a there's a lot of percentage where they yeah, they there's a lot of percentage of the people who say, Yeah, well, I'm gonna show up, and then they end up never showing up.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Or or life happens and they just forget about it and they don't show up.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Which always kind of confuse me. You're buying a house. How do you just forget to not want to show up? How do you just forget that you're buying a house and the price is going on?

SPEAKER_02 6:50

And that's another thing, too.

Red Flags When You Are Excluded

SPEAKER_02 6:52

If you have an inspection company that says you cannot be there during the inspection, get a new inspection company. That's a big red flag. Buying this house, it is going to be the largest purchase of your life, and you want to be able to be there. You want to ask questions, you want an inspection company that is going to support you and help you and answer your questions, not one who's trying to hide stuff and not letting you be there.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

And I would consider that a red flag also if your agent tells you as a home buyer do not go to the home inspection. Yes, I would too.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

We've had that before, and then we and those are the ones that we've gone in and we've done second inspections for the client because they didn't trust the first one because the agent picked out the inspector and they weren't allowed to go to it.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Yeah, you you are if you're the home buyer, you are buying this house. You have every right to be there during that inspection.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

And you're paying for the inspection.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Yeah, so don't let anybody tell you you cannot go to that go to the home inspection. That is that is not right. I don't know why some agents will do that. I there's stick up for yourself. Yeah, yeah, there's all kinds of different theories as to why some people would tell you not to go to the inspection.

How To Attend Without Distracting

SPEAKER_00 8:03

I mean, maybe I if maybe some people would be very uh I got I don't want to say annoying, but they would be uh constantly asking the inspector questions, getting them distracted. That that can be a legit problem because we only have a certain amount of time to get everything done. And I've had some buyers on their I did the outside, I'm in the basement of the electrical, they go, hey, did you see this over here? It's like I haven't gotten there. I have not done that. That's not part of the sequence yet. But they they constantly are asking you a question about something else. Hey, did you see did you look underneath the attic yet? No, it's not part of the sequence yet. So you you gotta, as a home inspector, you gotta keep control of the sequence of what you're doing because you have a limited amount of time.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

And you have the liability, so you need to to control the situation and control when you're doing things.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Yes. So you you need to now if you're a home buyer or are you an agent, have your home buyer go there, go tell them to go, hey, stay out of the inspector's way, let them know what you're concerned about, spend your time there measuring things. Buyer doesn't have to be there the whole time, they don't have to show up at all. We prefer them to be there a little bit because at least I can show them You know what's going on. Like say it's

Seeing Issues In Proper Context

SPEAKER_00 9:22

a finished basement, I I find moisture. If they just read in the in the report that's hey, I found moisture in the basement, they may think it's the entire basement has flooded and may do it again. I'd rather have them there and go, hey, I found moisture in this corner right here in the basement. It also has to be on the outside, there's a downspout that's not connected. That yes, it's a concern, but really minimize and and show how practically um insignificant a fix for that would would be. You don't want them you don't want the buyer imagining, oh, the whole thing is flooding and there's moisture all over the walls. You don't want them to think that. So it's that's why you want them there so we can at least put the and there and they visually can put it in a proper perspective as to how much moisture or how much the wall is cracked, things like that. But the buyers should leave the inspector alone for the most part, let them do their sequence, and every inspector should have a sequence. If not, they need to create one for themselves. So Laura, any other thoughts about this one?

Final Advice And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_02 10:32

No.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

This is not this is not a real big episode, but it's real important that you, if you're the buyer, if you can show up, please do so. Don't show up at the end, show up in the beginning. I don't care what your agent tells you.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

They're not doing the inspection.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

We are you can be there in the very beginning if you want. I'm fine. Just realize that the inspector has a sequence, and that sequence is to your benefit to allow them to do their sequence and do the proper inspection for you so they can do a thorough job. Do not distract them. Ask them when's a good time to ask them questions. That's cool. I have no problem with that.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Set that up in the beginning. Like, when when do you want me to ask questions?

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yeah, that yeah, that's perfect. So, other than that, I think that's it for this one, but always get the home inspector. That's you do that. All right, thank you, everybody. Bye, bye bye.