Mastering The Art of Professional Luxury Home Inspections

Purchasing a luxury property is typically different than buying a standard home. There are properties that may not be listed publicly, because of seller privacy concerns. There are also plenty of details that are to be considered with luxury homes. Most would have features that are customized and difficult to compare. This makes home inspections slightly challenging.

"Any home prior to going up for sale can benefit from a pre-sale home inspection," according to Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Real Estate. "More so a home inspection for a luxury home is a great selling point to show any potential buyers."

The following can serve as your guide to a luxury home inspections, and you can do to ensure sale success.

Luxury Home Inspections Are Different

You should always have a home inspection before buying any home, but when it comes to luxury homes, this is even more vital. Inspecting luxury homes involves a more time-consuming process that may require specialized home inspectors or a property inspectors. If the property has a spa, pool, security system, high-tech lawn irrigation system, a summer kitchen, or even a bowling alley, the home inspection is far more comprehensive, than say that of a standard house.

What’s The Difference Between A Standard Home And Luxury Home?

Before we dive deeper into luxury home inspections, it’s important to know what the requirements are for a house to be classified as "luxury." These requirements or guidelines include:

• The price the home is listed for. Typically for a home to be luxury, it must be listed for $1.5 million or more.

• The size of the home is also important when it comes to luxury status. A luxury home is 4,000 square feet or more.

• Lastly, what types of luxury features does the house have? Luxury features include spas, large pools, movie theatres, wine cellars, and more.

The average residential home located in an urban area may not meet the above luxury requirements even if the home’s listed price is over a million dollars. To be a true luxury home, all factors must be present; price, features, and size of the property.

What To Expect From A Professional Luxury Home Inspection

Due to the size and features of luxury homes, home inspectors need to be somewhat specialized in this realty niche. For example, a fireplace should be inspected by a professional who specializes in wood energy technology transfer at least once every year. You should have the furnaces and HVAC systems checked at least once a year as well.

Luxury homes tend to have multiple furnaces, fireplaces, and more extravagant features that require regular inspection and upkeep. One good example would be a pool that needs to be inspected twice per season. The complex nature of these homes means that it is essential to find and hire home inspectors with the certifications, insurance, and other required licenses to inspect luxury homes.

Involve Everyone In The Home Inspection

There are specialty service programs that give clients and real estate professionals easy, quick, and affordable access to qualified home inspectors. Home inspections and added property assessments can be conveniently arranged with a simple phone call and a bit of research.

Programs like these also have client care representatives who manage the coordination, booking, and payments for whatever inspection you need. This emphasizes the need for a team approach to ensure luxury home inspections go as expected.

Make the luxury home inspection a team effort, from buyer to inspector. However, it can be beneficial when purchasing a home that’s smaller in scale and has unique features such as a well, or a septic system. Not all specialized inspections are just for high-end real estate.

Ensure You Do Your Homework On Your Inspector

Doing your due diligence and in-depth research on home inspectors is absolutely a must. You should never base your inspector's decision on recommendations alone. Sure, your friend may have the best inspector lined up for you, but still do a bit of digging, especially if your friend used this home inspector more than six months ago.

A few things to consider when choosing a home inspector are:

• Their experience, how many years they have been inspecting homes

• Number of inspections they’ve done in their career, and number of inspections they’ve done recently.

• Qualifications, training, and certifications based on American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) Guidelines

• The job they held prior to becoming a home inspector

Buying A Luxury Home?

Certified luxury home inspectors are in somewhat of a niche. They are, however, a must to hire prior to purchasing any type of multi-million dollar real estate. Choose an inspector that is up-to-date on inspection trends, as well as someone with expertise in the different features a luxury home may have. Do you have a luxury home inspection story? We want to hear it.

Image source: Pixabay

Luxury Homes Have Luxury Roofs

In the world of luxury homes, nothing is "typical" or "normal" anymore. From high-end fixtures to heated driveways, there are endless ways to spend more money on a luxury home. 

That concept runs true with roofing on luxury homes as well. Luxury homeowners typically want the best of the best for their dream home, so where a normal home might have a typical asphalt roof, a luxury home is likely to have far more expensive roofing materials, such as:

-Cedar

-Metal &Tin

-Slate

-Etc.

While some of these roofing materials might have a longer roof life, they can be a pain to maintain and can be damaged in different ways when compared to asphalt.

These luxury roofing materials are not only expensive but are also not very common in most areas, meaning the number of luxury roof inspectors and contractors who specialize in those types of roofs might be scarce. The last thing you want to do is hire a roofing inspector who claims to understand the material, but in reality, has maybe inspected one or two in his career."

 Here are Some Other Articles Related to Your Search:

• The Importance of a Comprehensive Home Inspection Report
• Home Sweet Home: Essential Considerations for First-Time Home Buyers
• Here's How a Home Inspection Can Help Buyers