Definition
A home inspection is a buyer-ordered walkthrough performed by a licensed inspector, who evaluates the roof, foundation, electrical and plumbing systems, and general safety of the home. It isn't the same as an appraisal and doesn't establish a dollar value — instead, it produces a detailed report listing everything that's found. On a traditional listed sale, that report often becomes the starting point for a tense repair-or-credit negotiation just before closing. For a homeowner, inspections can feel stressful because problems you didn't know existed, or didn't think mattered, suddenly become bargaining chips. Selling a house as-is to a cash buyer generally sidesteps this entirely, since the buyer has already priced the home's condition into their offer rather than requesting repairs afterward. Understanding what a typical inspection covers can help you anticipate what a traditional buyer might raise.
Example
Gloria accepted an offer of $255,000 on her home in Sacramento from a buyer using a conventional loan, and the buyer's inspector spent about three hours going through the property two days later. The report flagged an aging furnace nearing the end of its expected life and an active roof leak above the back bedroom that Gloria hadn't even noticed. Her buyer came back two weeks before closing asking for an $11,000 repair credit to cover both issues, and after some back-and-forth Gloria agreed to $8,500 to keep the deal together. The negotiation added almost two weeks to her timeline and several stressful phone calls with her agent. When she later sold a different rental property directly to a cash buyer, there was no repair negotiation at all, since the offer had already been priced around the home's condition from the start.