Here's a reminder of how the typical home inspection process works in Virginia....

And a brief reminder of a few of the timing issues.....

• When completing a home inspection contingency (to the contract) a number of days will be filled in (10? 14? 15?) that will dictate the timeframe in which the buyer must inspection the property AND report back to the seller as to any deficiencies found.
• If the inspection shows the need for a further inspection, an additional five days can be tacked on for such secondary inspection.
• After the seller has received the response from the buyers, they have 5 days to respond.
• If the seller doesn't agree to perform all repairs, there will be a 5 day negotiation period.
• If the buyer and seller haven't agreed by the end of the negotiation period, the buyer has 2 days to decide whether to continue with the seller's last offer of repairs, or to terminate the contract.

To map this all out, here's how long a home inspection contingency could really take....

• May 1 - ratified contract with 14 day inspection period
• May 15 - inspection, showing the need for further inspection
• May 19 - further inspection
• May 20 - repairs requests to sellers
• May 25 - sellers respond
• May 30 - end of negotiation period
• June 1 - final response by buyer

Yes, that innocuous 14 day inspection contingency can really turn into a month!