Your Inspection Report Is For You Not Your Lender

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One well-meaning email can slow down a closing or stop it cold, and it happens more often than you’d think. We’re Jim and Laura, and we’re pulling back the curtain on a costly mistake home buyers and real estate agents keep making: sharing the full home inspection report with the loan officer or even an insurance company. That report is detailed by design, and when it lands in underwriting, it can turn routine home inspection findings into “conditions” that trigger delays, extra inspections, and repair demands. 

We walk through a true story where a minor electrical issue, basically an unfinished light fixture with exposed wiring, starts as a straightforward fix. Then the scope balloons. A full electrical report gets created, the entire document gets forwarded, and suddenly the lender is staring at a long list of older-home issues they never asked for. We explain what the lender actually needed all along: a simple confirmation that the specific item was repaired, documented cleanly and clearly. 

From there, we get into the pattern we see with basement moisture, foundation questions, and confusing lender emails that lack standard language. We share how we handle those requests as home inspectors, why we push for precise questions, and how to avoid opening a new can of worms like mold testing or structural engineering when it isn’t warranted. If you’re buying a home, selling a home, or guiding clients as a real estate agent, this is practical advice for protecting your mortgage approval, reducing closing delays, and using your inspection report the way it’s intended. 

If this helped, subscribe, share it with a buyer who needs it, and leave a review so more people stop making the same mistake. What part of the home buying process has surprised you most?

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To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Three-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com) 

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:01):
Hey everybody, it's Jim and Laura.

SPEAKER_01 (00:03):
Hello, everyone.

SPEAKER_02 (00:04):
Alright, so we this is very important if you are a
home buyer.
And it's also important if youare a uh a real estate agent to
know not to do this and remindyour clients, your home buyers,
not to do this, also.

SPEAKER_01 (00:22):
Not even on accident.
I've heard of that too.

SPEAKER_02 (00:25):
Yes.
But your your report, that isfor your usage, not for the loan
officer.
And what what we hadn'thappened, we've seen it in the
past, but recently, the or youtell the story.
You're you talked to theinspector.
You tell me, tell me how allthis happened.

SPEAKER_01 (00:46):
So there was a transaction.
Prazer came through and wiggedout about something with the
electrical.
The the guy had taken out afixture and the wires were
dangling.
I can't remember if he had himcapped off or whatever.
I I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03):
Sounds just like an unfinished project.

SPEAKER_01 (01:05):
Yeah, it was an unfinished project.
There wasn't like it was like hehad taken out a light and just
hadn't put another one back up.
So appraiser, instead of stayingin his lane, decided that he
wanted to wig out about theelectric and that the electric
needed fixed.

SPEAKER_02 (01:21):
So our just that one thing?

SPEAKER_01 (01:25):
I believe so.

SPEAKER_02 (01:26):
Okay.
Okay.

SPEAKER_01 (01:28):
So our inspector went out the first time and he
was like, no, this is a problem,blah, blah, blah.
Explained, you know, explainedwhy.

SPEAKER_02 (01:36):
It's it's well, yeah, you never want exposed
wire.

SPEAKER_01 (01:39):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (01:40):
But that's a simple inexpensive fix.

SPEAKER_01 (01:43):
I I can't remember what the report was or you know,
anything like that.
That got sent back, and then theappraiser was like, Well, all
that stuff needs fixed.
It needs fixed, it needs fixed.
So the seller went ahead and hefixed everything.
We went back out.
The seller at this point'sinsanely frustrated with the

(02:06):
process and with the appraiser.
And so he makes our inspectorinspect all the electric.

SPEAKER_02 (02:14):
Who who made one of our inspectors do everything?

SPEAKER_01 (02:16):
The the guy that owned the house, the one that
had fixed everything and doneeverything.
So apparently he had fixed thatlight fixture issue.
There was a light fixture in it,it was all working.

SPEAKER_02 (02:27):
Which is really just putting caps on the bare wires
and then putting inside anenclosed box.

SPEAKER_01 (02:32):
Or just putting a light fixture on and connecting
it and calling it good, which Ibelieve is what he did.

SPEAKER_02 (02:37):
Which is what probably the plan in the first
place.

SPEAKER_01 (02:40):
So no big deal.
That that got that got fixed anddone.
Our inspector said, listen, youdon't need a whole report.
You should not send a wholereport to your loan officer.
He's like, that's a bad idea.
Dude insisted that he do all ofthe electric, send him all of

(03:02):
the report, which our inspectorthen did because it was at the
request of the client, and theclient was paying.
So the client then sends thatwhole electrical report and
there were issues.
Of course, it's an older house,there's you know, so there was
sh there was shutoff.

(03:24):
So the loan officer sends athing back and he's like, dude,
we didn't want all this.
I can't look at this becausethis is going to cause more
problems.
I literally just need somethingsaying that that was fixed.
That's it.
That's all I want.
So we ended up writing up aletter, putting it on

(03:46):
letterhead, sending it in andgoing, it's all fixed.
And that was how we that thatwas how it ended up being done.
So it it was finally fixed.

SPEAKER_02 (03:56):
So it started from just an appraiser.
An appraiser out of their lane.
Step out of the lane, and thenthe buyer then shared the whole
report.

SPEAKER_01 (04:06):
I don't know if it was the buyer or the seller.

SPEAKER_02 (04:09):
Seller shouldn't get the whole report in the first
place.

SPEAKER_01 (04:11):
Well, the seller was the one paying for the
electrical thing, I think.
Like this was all the seller.
So I I I don't understand thewhole dynamics of that, but
either way, that report got tothe loan officer and it
shouldn't have.
And the loan officer flat outsaid, We don't want to see this
because this loan wouldn'thappen then.

SPEAKER_02 (04:31):
Yeah.
So if you are the buyer or yourreal estate agent, do not send
the home inspection report tothe loan officer.

SPEAKER_01 (04:39):
Don't send it to your insurance company.

SPEAKER_02 (04:41):
No, no, no.
They they will send their ownappraiser out to look for issues
that will affect the value ofthe house.
But if they see the homeinspection report, which is more
thorough than these appraisersand what they're looking, we're
looking at different things.
It's gonna it's gonna causeissues, delays.

SPEAKER_00 (05:00):
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for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed home inspectorsfor your needs from radon to
malt to warranty.
For a great home inspection, youreally can't go wrong.

(05:21):
Visit home inspections inOhio.com.

SPEAKER_02 (05:26):
We've seen, and here's another issue that we
come across appraisers.
We will every now and then, andit's it's not that rare, get
contacted by some loan officeror uh and and what they're doing
is they need to know hey, themoisture in the basement, what's
going on with this, but is it astructural, is is it

(05:49):
structurally impacting theproperty?
Well, and and they will phrasethings, they have no standard
language for how they're doing.
They will ask us about hey, weneed to know uh about the
foundation, about the water.
As a home inspector, I'mthinking, okay, gutters,
downspouts, it could be thegrading of the house, what's

(06:10):
going on?
So, and there's one time we didthat, we had this.
Oh, yeah, we went there, and andwe even this is why we have to
be very specific with with theseuh these loan officers or or
appraisers, it doesn't reallymatter.
I kind of see them as doing thiscausing the same issues, is
what's that loan officer?

(06:31):
What she wanted to know was isare there any pipes busted?

SPEAKER_01 (06:36):
And that's not what she said in either of the email
that we received from her untilthe very last, where she was
like, I don't know how I can bemore clear about these pipes.

SPEAKER_02 (06:46):
Yeah, and she never used the word pipe.

SPEAKER_01 (06:48):
It's the first time you've used the word pipe,
honey.

SPEAKER_02 (06:51):
Yeah, yeah, honey.

SPEAKER_01 (06:53):
Yeah, honey.

SPEAKER_02 (06:54):
So so if you share your home inspection report with
uh loan officer, there whoknows?
They I really wonder about theirtraining sometimes or what their
role is because there is anytraining.
I will see them like, hey,there's water down here.
We need a whole structuralengineer.
I'm like, do you really?

(07:15):
No, I don't think so.
Or that lady there, she wants toknow if the pipes were busting
causing a leak.
So I'm like, and she never evenmentioned that.
So when we get a request forthis, hey, can you kind of write
a letter explaining what thecause of this moisture in the
basement, which is a common one?
Can you explain the moisture inthe basement?
We're gonna we need to groundwell, hey, what what exactly are

(07:38):
you looking for?
Are you looking for pipes,foundation issues?
Uh what exactly are you lookingfor?
Because it seems to be about thethird time we asked the question
of the legitimate.
That's when we know exactly whatthey want.
And then and then we can answerthat because we don't want to
answer, go, oh yeah, that's thisis caused by this, this, and

(08:00):
then that opened up another canof worms that they didn't need
to know.
Like that electric report didthat they did not need to know.

SPEAKER_01 (08:05):
So if you are the buyer or the agent, tell your
buyers do not share thatinspection report with their
loan officer, because we may seea little bit of mold somewhere,
and now that opens up that opensup a moisture issue, that opens
up remediation, that opens uptesting, and we've had to do
that too because somebody hasinadvertently sent their report

(08:28):
where we've then had to go outand test for it.

SPEAKER_02 (08:32):
Yes, I I remember going to do a it's never
worthwhile to do a swab onsomething that's not even mold.

SPEAKER_01 (08:39):
No.
But you have no choice.

SPEAKER_02 (08:42):
Well, I we have to do it to help the client.
But to help the client get thehouse bought that they want to
buy, we have to go and help themout.

SPEAKER_01 (08:52):
And we will we'll do that, but so so keep in mind
though, what the home inspectionreport is is it's a list of the
conditions of that house at thatspecific point in time.
And then you look at that andyou go, Can I live with this?
Can I fix the the issues, or doI care about the issues?

(09:13):
Are they going to impact it if Isell the house again?
And then you make your decisionwhether to buy the house or not,
and then the rest of that reportbecomes your honeydew list, and
you work on fixing stuff as youlive there over the course of
the next few years.
And then by the time you'redone, the house is in better
shape than when you bought it,and hopefully you get a higher
value for it when you sell it.

SPEAKER_02 (09:34):
Yeah, and most things in the Home Special
Report are not big deals, butthey're they're stuff you for
you to be aware of, so you ithelps you maintain the house.
That is you will learn you know,five years worth of uh living
your house, you will learn allthat within the next couple
hours during our inspection andget your report.
That's you learn all that upfront.
So you know, like all right,there's a little bit of caulking

(09:55):
and I need to uh touch that.

SPEAKER_01 (09:57):
Keep up on that, and it doesn't matter if your
caulking job does not look good,you just do it, and as long as
water's not getting back there,it doesn't matter how pretty it
looks, you will get there withtime.
It just takes some practice.

SPEAKER_02 (10:11):
I I I might doesn't matter if it's pretty, no, as
long as it works.
That is as far as myperspective, that's true.
It as long as it works and it'ssafe, that is fine.
I've had real estate agents go,Oh, this is such a beautiful
house, it's perfect.
Um, the inspector won't find anyissues here for you, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 (10:33):
There's no perfect house.

SPEAKER_02 (10:35):
You you just told your a your client that you know
nothing about houses, or youthat you are that inexperienced,
or you're willing to pull thewool over the eye, which there's
always issues, brand new houses.

SPEAKER_01 (10:48):
So we we've been in business for almost 24 years.
In 24 years, we have had tworeports doing like sixteen
hundred to two thousand a year,two reports in the course of
twenty-four years that did nothave a summary, and they were
both condos.

SPEAKER_02 (11:08):
Yes, and our summaries take the bigger not
bigger issues, but they take themore issue, the larger issues,
puts me, puts them into a asummary.
Does it automatically do safety?

SPEAKER_01 (11:21):
Oh, I thought it did.
Okay, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 (11:23):
No, no, a missing outlet cover, that's a miss
that's the but over a certainnumber, though, right?

SPEAKER_01 (11:29):
Like more expensive fixes.

SPEAKER_02 (11:30):
You usually it's more expensive things, but even
that's even that is variable.
Well, on how people interpretwhat's what needs put in, that
depends upon the person readerreading the client and and why
what's I comfortable with?
I had a house one time, lady didnot want to buy the house
because I had a gas stove.

(11:52):
She was scared of gas.
But I looked behind, like,listen, you have an electric
hookup.

SPEAKER_01 (11:57):
Just take it out.

SPEAKER_02 (11:58):
Take this one, donate it, and then go get or
sell it, and then use that moneyto buy yourself a new one.
She's like, Oh, okay.
House sold.
But it's it's silly stuff, butyeah, small, insignificant items
do not make the summary report.
So, all right, I think that'sabout it on this one.

SPEAKER_01 (12:14):
Bye, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 (12:15):
Bye bye.