5 The OSHI Home Inspection Report

Your Real Estate Agent likely recommended a home inspection as a critical step in your due diligence. OSHI Inspection Reports are thorough, easy to read, and even-handed. While inspection reports often have a reputation for being alarming, it is important to remember that no home is perfect. In most cases, the findings in a report do not outweigh the many positive attributes that attracted you to the property in the first place.

A home purchase is a complex decision based on several factors: proximity to work and schools, the character of the neighborhood, curb appeal, and even specific functional details like the layout of the kitchen and driveway - and an Inspection. It can be a sound decision to invest in replacing a mechanical system, for example, when the home meets your needs in so many other ways.

The primary purpose of the Inspection Report is to provide a factual account of the home's condition based on professional observations. It serves to memorialize the state of the property at the time of the inspection, ensuring you have a clear record and essential information before the purchase.

The OSHI Inspection Report uses Ratings which serve as a shorthand summary of each item and allow you to skim over the Report and quickly see which issues are more critical. OSHI uses the following Ratings: Satisfactory, Monitor, Marginal, Not Present, Repair and Safety Hazard, which reflect the condition of the item. The detail that follows each Rating provides useful information for the future owner such as Model #’s, Serial #’s, brands and material types and are clues for us to determine age, identify safety concerns and establish the condition of the system or material.

The Report does not address cosmetics or aesthetics. In order to expedite and ease your review of the Report, there is a glossary at the end with terms that are not in common use outside of the industry.

We value your input. Before the inspection begins, we welcome any specific concerns or initial questions you may have. Once the Report is issued, we schedule a follow-up conversation to review our findings together, ensuring you feel confident in your next steps.