Home Inspection Report vs. Property Condition Report

For those that have taken an interest in foreclosures, you may have come across a document known as a Property Condition Report at one time or the other. At first glance, it looks just like a Home Inspection report. However, buyers should take note that a Property Condition report is not the same as a Home Inspection report.

A Property Condition report is a report prepared by an Appraiser, not a Home Inspector, for HUD. You can find attorneys for estate planning claims to explain about this in detail.

HUD requires that for a home to be listed with HUD, it meet their minimum property standards. Appraisers make sure of this by checking through HUD’s home valuation sheet (HUD Form HUD-92564-VC). Thus, what you get in the Property Condition Report is the minimal amount of information that is necessary for the home to be listed.

Further,the Property Condition Report is more focused on what is easily visibile. Conditions such as a cracked foundation, gas leak or leaky roof may not be covered in this report. So, don’t believe that just because it’s not in there, nothings wrong.

A Home Inspection is much much more thorough ( you’ll notice this right away when your Home Inspector hands you a small tree worth of paper 😉 ). It also usually has a number of photos to go along with each section in the report.

Also, a Home Inspector may be held liable for the representations made in the Home Inspection report. (Whereas an Appraiser would probably not be liable to a buyer for mis-representations in a Property Condition Report; since a Property Condition Report shouldn’t be relied upon for a house purchasing decision – but, I’m not a lawyer, so take that with a grain of salt.)

Conclusions?

Home Inspections > Property Condition Reports

UPDATE: BTW, for those who haven’t seen a Property Condition Report, they can be pulled up by doing a home search on www.bidselect.com. Just view the details of a property and then click on the link to view the report (where the big red arrow is pointing below):