Home Inspection Checklist: The 12 Systems Every Buyer's Inspector Checks

What's on the checklist, system by system

An inspector moves through about a dozen systems, in order. Structure and foundation first: cracks in basement walls and support beams, signs of settling, patched repairs with no paperwork behind them. Then roof and attic: missing or curled shingles, flashing and downspouts, insulation depth, water stains, ventilation. Exterior drainage gets its own check. The ground needs to slope away from the house, and gutters need to dump water at least three feet from the foundation. Inside, the list covers the electrical panel (GFCI protection in kitchens and bathrooms, any knob-and-tube wiring still in the walls), plumbing supply and drain lines, the water heater's age, heating and cooling equipment, floors and windows, built-in appliances, bathroom ventilation and grout, the basement or crawlspace, and safety devices like smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

Per Opendoor's buyer checklist, the visit runs 2 to 4 hours, the written report lands in 24 to 48 hours, and the national average cost is $343. Most buyers pay $300 to $500. A condo under 1,000 square feet runs closer to $200. A home over 2,000 square feet runs $400 or more. What the inspection skips matters just as much: termites, sewer lines, septic systems, radon, mold, pools, chimneys, anything behind the walls. Those need separate specialists, billed separately. A sewer scope alone runs $150 to $300. A septic evaluation runs $300 to $600.

The $5,166 reason buyers rarely skip the checklist

Waiving the inspection contingency is the riskiest move a buyer can make, per Opendoor's own guidance to buyers. Here's the math behind that warning: foundation repairs average $5,166, and a heating and cooling system past the 15-to-20-year mark is already at end of life. None of that shows up at a showing. In competitive markets some buyers strip the contingency anyway, just to stand out on an offer.

For sellers, that same math runs in reverse. A buyer who keeps the contingency gets 5 to 10 days from offer acceptance to act on the report, and three moves once it lands: ask you to make repairs, ask for credits at closing, or cancel the contract and keep their earnest money. Most sellers expect some negotiation after an inspection. What catches them off guard is that the report becomes the buyer's negotiation script, line by line, with a dollar figure attached to each item.

If your house wouldn't pass the checklist clean

Run that dozen-system checklist honestly against your own house before you list it. If the roof, the panel, or the HVAC would draw flags, and you don't want to spend the contingency window fielding repair requests or re-listing after a canceled contract, there's a second path. Cash Flow Deals is a Florida real estate investor that connects homeowners directly to vetted FHA, conventional, VA, and DSCR buyers through a novation agreement. Those buyers are screened for financing before the inspection stage even starts, and Cash Flow Deals handles the repair conversation instead of leaving you alone with a stranger's inspector. Listing-side details run through Silver Door Realty, a licensed Florida brokerage. One honest caveat up front: major structural findings, foundation, moisture, wiring, or drain issues, do get re-costed, and the decision on how to proceed stays with you. For everything else on the checklist, you skip the report-repair-credit-repeat cycle. This checklist stops being a threat and turns into a planning document you control.

Cash Flow Deals is a Florida real estate investor that locks in a net price for a seller's house before repairs are scoped, using a novation-based, flat-fee process arranged through its licensed FL brokerage partner, Silver Door Realty — not a traditional listing, and not a brokerage itself.

Here's what that looks like in practice with Cash Flow Deals:

1. Cash Flow Deals reviews your house against the systems checklist (foundation, roof, electrical, HVAC, and the rest) with you, and locks in a net price before any inspection report exists to negotiate against.

2. If a buyer's inspector later flags a structural item, foundation, moisture, wiring, or drain issues, that gets re-costed with you directly, on your terms, instead of through a stranger's repair request.

3. The written agreement follows within 24 to 48 hours, the same window a standard inspection report takes to arrive, except this one doesn't reset your closing date.