The Boston Globe published this about the pressure buyers have been facing when making an offer on real estate in eastern Massachusetts. That was in 2021. It is looking like the pressure will be lifting in 2024 into 2025.

The market:

When the housing shortage and high demand gave sellers more offers to choose from, buyers started hearing that the seller wanted them to forego home inspection. Many buyers buckled under the pressure and passed on their right to inspection.

Two things happened in the fall of 2024 that changed this terrible trend:

Mortgage interest rates went down.

Supply of houses and condos for sale went up.

The law:

In the summer of 2024, the Massachusetts legislature took up the cause of protecting home buyers from the pressure to not inspect the homes they were buying. There is now a law protecting a buyer’s right to have a home inspection. The details will be worked out in 2025. The Bill is called An Act Protecting Consumer Rights in Purchasing Safe and Habitable Homes. Here’s some more about why we supported this law.

The presence of a contingency paragraph on the Offer to Purchase gives the seller an opportunity to pressure a buyer into foregoing their right to inspection. An Act Protecting Consumer Rights in Purchasing Safe and Habitable Homes. removes those clauses from standard use. Instead of a clause to opt in or out of inspection, the right to inspect is given for every purchase. Every buyer has the right, until a certain date. The seller does not have the option to pressure the buyer to not have an inspection when the seller is choosing between offers.

Why we insist on home inspection:

Getting a home inspection is common sense. Anyone would want a mechanic to inspect a used car, it only makes sense that a home inspector should inspect a used house. If you buy a clunker of a car, there are Lemon Laws in place to protect you. There is no Lemon Law if you buy a clunker of a house, which is a much more expensive purchase with potentially much more expensive repairs that could be found before purchase.

From 2020 into 2024, our company was swimming against the current when we insist that all our clients get home inspections. We are fiduciary agents; that means we need to give sound financial advice. It is not sound financial advice for a buyer’s agent to suggest that a buyer forego a home inspection. That is our opinion, and we are sticking to it, for you.