In this competitive real estate market -- when buyers are often finding themselves competing with multiple other buyers for their perfect home -- some buyers find themselves considering whether to make an offer without a home inspection contingency.

Certainly, an offer without a home inspection contingency is likely to be seen by the seller as a stronger than an identical offer with an inspection contingency.

Of late, I have seen some buyers (or their agents) trying to find space between having a home inspection contingency and not having one.

Here are three modifications of home inspection contingencies I have seen lately that don't seem to be all that helpful...

Inspection For Informational Purposes Only - This is usually accompanied by language that allows a buyer to terminate the contract if they do not like what they find during the home inspection, so this modification really just seems to be a promise to terminate the contract instead of asking for repairs if there are issues.  This often isn't seen as much stronger than an offer with a regular old home inspection contingency.

If There Are Issues, Buyer Will Request Repairs, Not Terminate - Again, I think this is often intended to try to make the seller feel better about the inspection contingency.  The buyer is promising not to just give up and walk away -- they will at least request repairs and try to work things out.  But, this one is also pretty subjective -- those repairs that are requested (instead of terminating the contract) can be requested in a manner that would make it almost impossible to come to an mutually acceptable resolution -- essentially working a buyer back towards being able to get out of the contract, technically by having required repairs instead of having terminated the contract.

I have nothing against a buyer (or buyer's agent) trying to soften the impact of a home inspection contingency -- but most sellers look at things in a bit more of a black and white perspective -- is there an inspection contingency or not?

So... instead of spending lots of time and energy trying to fine tune the language of a cleverly crafted modification of an inspection contingency... focus on deciding whether you want the opportunity to reconsider whether you will purchase the property after having gathered additional information during a home inspection.  If you do want the chance to reconsider the purchase, then you're going to have an inspection contingency - and regardless of what additional language you add in to try to soften the impact of that contingency - a seller is almost certainly going to see it as being less favorable than an offer without an inspection contingency.