Every guide on this site exists to help you screen out an obviously bad house before you spend money finding out the hard way. None of it replaces a licensed home inspector. A walkthrough catches what's visible to an untrained eye in twenty minutes. A professional inspection uses training, tools and time this site can't substitute for. Book one on every house you're seriously considering, full stop.
What does a professional inspection cover that a walkthrough cannot?
A licensed inspector opens the electrical panel, tests appliances, runs the HVAC system through a full cycle, gets into the attic and crawl space, and writes a report you can act on in a negotiation. A walkthrough only ever tells you whether a house is worth that next step.
The gap isn't about diligence, it's about access and training. An inspector is legally and professionally positioned to open the panel this site's electrical guide tells you not to touch. They carry moisture meters, outlet testers and ladders as professional equipment, not a $75 toolkit. Most importantly, their findings go in a report that gives you actual leverage in a negotiation, which a buyer's own notes generally don't carry the same weight to provide.
What does a home inspection cost?
A general inspection runs $300 to $450 for an average-sized home. Add the specialty inspections a general inspection doesn't include, radon, sewer scope, termite, septic, mold, and a buyer commonly lands around $1,200 total. That's not being overcharged. That's what a genuinely thorough pre-purchase review actually costs.
| Inspection | Typical cost | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| General home inspection | $300 - $450 | Visible condition of all major systems and structure |
| Radon test | $100 - $200 | A gas invisible to a walkthrough entirely |
| Sewer scope | $150 - $300 | The one pipe nobody on this site can see any part of |
| Termite / WDO inspection | $75 - $150 | Confirms or rules out what section 8 of this site can only flag as a possibility |
| Septic inspection | $300 - $600 | A functioning check, not just a visual one, of a system a walkthrough can barely see |
| Mold testing | $300 - $700 | Confirms species and extent behind a smell or a stain |
Which specialty inspections are worth ordering?
Order the ones this site's walkthrough couldn't rule out. A radon test is worth it on any house regardless of what you see, since radon has no visible or physical warning sign at all. A sewer scope, termite inspection, septic check or mold test is worth it specifically when this site's guides flagged something you couldn't fully resolve yourself.
What happens when an inspection finds problems?
You generally have three options: ask the seller to complete repairs before closing, negotiate a price reduction or credit, or walk away if the problems are serious enough and you're still inside your contract's inspection contingency window.
A credit toward closing costs is usually the cleaner option of the three when repairs are needed, since it keeps you in control of who does the work and how well it's done, rather than trusting a seller to hire the cheapest available contractor right before closing.
What does a home warranty cover after closing?
A home warranty is a service contract, separate from homeowners insurance, that covers repair or replacement of specific home systems and appliances that fail from normal wear after you move in. It typically costs $350 to $900 a year, plus a $50 to $150 service call fee each time you use it.
The distinction that actually matters: an inspection is a snapshot of a house's condition on one day, before you buy it. A home warranty is ongoing protection against a system failing after you already own the house, which is a genuinely different kind of risk than the one this entire site is built to help you screen for. They're not competing tools. An inspection tells you what you're buying. A warranty is about what happens if a system that passed inspection still fails a year in, which does happen, systems don't fail on a schedule.
Most warranty providers exclude pre-existing conditions, meaning a problem that already existed before your coverage started isn't covered even if it's caught later. That's exactly why the order matters: walkthrough first, professional inspection second, warranty decision third, with the inspection report as your evidence of what condition everything was actually in when you bought.
Questions buyers ask
- Is a home inspection required to buy a house?
- No lender or law requires it in most transactions, but skipping it is a real gamble most buyers shouldn’t take. A walkthrough like this one screens for obvious problems; it doesn’t replace what a licensed inspector can see with tools and training a buyer doesn’t have.
- How long does a home inspection take?
- Typically two to four hours for an average-sized house, longer for a larger home or one with add-on inspections happening the same day.
- Can you attend the home inspection?
- Yes, and you should. Most inspectors expect buyers to show up for at least the last 30 to 60 minutes to walk through the findings in person, which is worth far more than reading the report alone later.
- Is a home warranty worth it for an older house?
- It depends on the age and condition of the specific systems, which is exactly what this site’s checklist and a professional inspection are for. A warranty covers repair or replacement costs for covered systems that fail after you move in; it doesn’t cover problems that already existed before you bought, which is why the inspection has to come first.
Related checks
Inspection cost figures: Houwzer/HomeAdvisor 2026 national averages; homeinspectioncost.net and InspectorData on specialty add-on pricing. Home warranty cost figures: Liberty Home Guard, Angi, ConsumerAffairs, Forbes Advisor and NerdWallet 2026 pricing guides. Figures are national averages current as of September 2026 and will vary by region and provider.