Home Inspection

Q: Shortly, I'm planning to buy a house for my family. Should I get a home inspection? Also, what should a good home inspection include?S. Libowitz, BaltimoreA: A home inspection is always a good idea.A home inspector will inspect the home and its structural components objectively, and without emotion. The inspector should be an independent third party.The base price for a home inspection in the Baltimore metro area is about $175. However, homes with sales prices over $175,000 are usually slightly more expensive because larger homes often have more bathrooms, more kitchen appliances, and more family rooms that require more time to inspect.

A modest increase in average home prices in November is the first upturn for the Baltimore region in more than a year, but beleaguered homeowners shouldn't cheer just yet. Though prices rose almost 1 percent on average compared with a year earlier, the median price - another common measure - fell 2.5 percent, according to numbers released Monday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems. The diverging price measures are one symptom of a still-rough housing market trying to battle back to normal.

If you're buying a home, the last thing you want is an expensive surprise. Unfortunately, most of the things that can go wrong with a house tend to pack a powerful punch in the wallet. If you have to replace your hot water heater, expect to spend upward of $600. If you have to replace your furnace or central air conditioner, you could spend twice that or more. Even seemingly small problems, such as broken pipes, badly wired outlets or cracked paint, can cause a slow leak in your financial stability.

A two-vehicle collision Wednesday propelled a privately owned ambulance into a Randallstown home and sent two people to Sinai Hospital. No one in the house at the intersection of Marriottsville and Winands roads was injured. At about 7:30 a.m., Baltimore County Police, responding to a cellphone call, found a Freestate Ambulance had run into the side of a home. The ambulance, which was not carrying a patient, had likely been side swiped by a car before it rammed the home, police said.

James J. Wyman, who was an owner of a house inspection business, a sports referee and active in Republican politics, died of a heart attack Wednesday while refereeing a football game at John Carroll School in Bel Air. He was 50. The longtime Wiltondale resident was born in Washington and raised in Rockville and Monkton, where he graduated from Hereford High School in 1967. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1971 from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y., and in 1982 earned a second bachelor's degree in economics from what was then Towson State College.

Dear Mr. Gisriel:I'm planning to buy a house shortly. Should I get a home inspection? Also, what should a good home inspection include?R. LambertBaltimoreDear Mr. Lambert:A home inspection is always a good idea.A home inspector will inspect the home and its structural components objectively and without emotion. The inspector should be an independent third party.The base price for a home inspection in the Baltimore metro area is about $175. However, homes with sales prices over $175,000 are usually slightly more expensive because larger homes often have more bathrooms, more kitchen appliances, and more family rooms that require extra time to inspect.

The home inspection can be an important part of the buying process. Inspections for homebuyers are therefore typically performed soon after a contract of sale has been ratified - signed by the buyer and the seller. Remember, the purpose of the inspection is to inform the buyer about the condition of the property and, often, to help educate the buyer about systems and components in the house. With respect to the condition of the property, the contract of sale frequently gives the homebuyer the right to request repairs of significant defects identified during an inspection of the property, and to withdraw from the contract if the seller declines to make those repairs.

Dear Mr. Azrael:My question is in regards to a deposit on a property.I put a $500 deposit down on a home that was contingent on a home inspection. I was worried about water problems in the basement. The inspector made the inspection. He told me and my wife and the agent and the women who lived there that he had bad news: There was water behind the paneling.I told my agent that I did not want to live with the fear of having water in the basement.The sellers said they would correct the water problems themselves by taking off the paneling and putting waterproof paint on it. But I still did not want to buy the house.

Dear Mr. Gisriel: Shortly, I'm planning to buy a house for my family. Should I get a home inspection? Also, what should a good home inspection include?Richard LambertGlen BurnieDear Mr. Lambert: A home inspection is always a good idea.A home inspector will inspect the home and its structural components objectively, and without emotion. The inspector should be an independent third party.The base price for a home inspection in the Baltimore metro area is about $175. However, homes with sales prices over $175,000 are usually slightly more expensive.

Dear Mr. Gisriel:My wife and I currently rent an apartment. We want to buy a home but don't know how to get started. Could you give us some tips?Tom Owings Glen BurnieDear Mr. Owings: Here is a 14-point home purchase and settlement checklist you can use:Save at least enough for a down payment and settlement costs (usually 5 percent to 10 percent of the sales price).Select a real estate agent and the general areas where you might want to live.Locate your new home -- inspect at least three to six houses.

Bedbugs have turned up in hotels, offices and movie theaters recently. And while they aren't a severe health threat, they are creepy and crawly, and everyone wants to know why they have become so common — and how to avoid or get rid of them. Writing a book on household pests is environmental historian Dawn Biehler, assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She's concluded that communities need to work together to eliminate bedbugs in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way. Question: How long have bedbugs been around and where do they come from?

Few things in everyday life are as intimidating as first-time home buying can be. There's so much to consider, and you don't know what you don't know. So here's a rough to-do list - the steps buyers typically go through from start to finish. Keith L. Cross, a Realtor with Century 21 Downtown in Baltimore, suggests that Step One - long before you get your heart set on a particular price range - is to get pre-qualified for a mortgage. Next, identify your wants and needs. Where do you see yourself living?

If you're buying a home, the last thing you want is an expensive surprise. Unfortunately, most of the things that can go wrong with a house tend to pack a powerful punch in the wallet. If you have to replace your hot water heater, expect to spend upward of $600. If you have to replace your furnace or central air conditioner, you could spend twice that or more. Even seemingly small problems, such as broken pipes, badly wired outlets or cracked paint, can cause a slow leak in your financial stability.

Cindy Thalman Home inspector AmeriSpec Home Inspection Service, Waldorf Salary --$55,000 Age --40 Years on the job --Five How she got started --With a background in engineering and a degree in psychology, Thalman found herself working as a customer service representative for a builder and became a superintendent there. With three children, she was looking for better hours and more flexibility so she took the job as a home inspector. Typical day --She usually makes three daily inspections, five days a week.

An Aberdeen official has asked for an inspection of a city-owned property that was leased to a homeless man earlier this year, saying there were concerns over the home's condition and the potential for liability issues. Councilman Michael G. Hiob filed the request last week after he was unable to find city or county records that show the house was properly inspected before Lewis B. Miller Jr. was given a one-year lease - free of charge - to get his life back on track. Miller moved out of the woods and into the vacant bungalow in March with the help of former City Manager Peter Dacey, who said he had the home informally inspected by the city's then-public works director.

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression" is advice home sellers often hear before the for-sale sign goes into the ground. It's usually followed by suggestions to paint the front door, de-clutter the house and repaint the interior a neutral shade. But some homeowners are going beyond the first impression and sprucing up the guts of the house by opting for a home inspection before it hits the market or taking it upon themselves to repair faulty or dated household items.

QUESTION: I soon will buy my first house and will have a huge deduction to take off my taxes. But I don't want to pay out so much for withholding taxes during the year and only get the money back next year when I file my taxes. What should I do?ANSWER: One of the primary financial advantages of homeownership is the tax deduction allowed to the homeowner. Typically, a homeowner can deduct from income all mortgage interest plus all real estate taxes.Therefore, the amount of interest and taxes to be paid in the coming year should be added together and divided by 12 -- this equals the monthly tax deduction the home will provide.

Harbel Housing Partnership, Patterson Park Neighborhoods Initiative and Belair-Edison Housing Service, all Baltimore-based programs, are sponsoring free homeownership programs for first-time buyers and new homeowners in October.Harbel's workshops are slated for 6: 30 p.m. Oct. 8 and Oct. 15 at St. John's of Hamilton, 5315 Harford Road.Part one will cover housing affordability, credit, mortgages and Baltimore County's settlement expense loan program. The second session will provide information on working with a Realtor, contracts, settlement costs and home inspection.

Ben Nacev knows how hard it can be to buy a house. After two unsuccessful attempts this year, he finally came up a winner when the seller of a Govans house accepted his contract. "It's pretty crazy," said Nacev, who settled on the $114,000 property June 7. "But I would say, don't get too wrapped up in it. Realize when you go into it, you may have to go through two or three rounds." Nacev's experience is one that's become common at a time when high demand and historically low interest rates continue to fuel a fast-paced seller's market.

An unhappy first-time homebuyer writes that her newly purchased home flooded during heavy rains. "I thought any problems with a home were supposed to be disclosed," she writes. Another homebuyer complains that she was unaware until just before settlement that the home she had agreed to buy had a broken air conditioner and a furnace in need of major repairs. What are a homebuyer's rights when undisclosed defects are discovered? Builders who sell new homes are required by statute to correct defects that appear within specified times after closing.