Common real estate wisdom says it's smart to get a inspection of a property before you buy it. Waiving a home inspection is unadvisable for most homebuyers.
But more buyers are taking the risk. More than 21% of accepted bids in 2021 removed the home inspection clause, according to forthcoming data from real estate website Redfin. In 2019, it was just 13%.
More from Grow: One of the biggest drivers of fierce competition in the homebuying market right now is the historically low number of houses>A 'pre-buy inspection' can help hedge your bets Here's how Malone's "pre-buy inspection" hack worked with a recent client: He and the client hired a home inspector for $350, and when Malone first showed his client the house, the inspector came with them and gave them a rundown of how stuff looked. It "enabled us to know what we were buying, which allowed us to take off the inspection contingency," Malone says, while "still hedging our bets."
80% of millennials willing to pay over asking>Why more buyers are dropping the inspection continency
