No. A professional home inspection is an examination of the current condition of your prospective home. It is not an appraisal, which determines market value, or a municipal inspection, which verifies local code compliance. A Home Inspector, therefore, will not pass or fail a house, but rather describe its physical condition and indicate what may need repair or replacement. At the end of most inspections, the first question a client will often ask is, "Would you buy this home?" At this point we have to explain that we are not in the business of purchase decision consulting. What we are getting at here is that the pass / fail question is one that our clients have to answer for themselves.
It is critical that the client understands the information in the reports. We are always glad to explain why we feel that something may need to be repaired or further evaluated. We also want our clients to have a clear picture of items that are major issues vs. maintenance issues. However, it is not possible for us to advise our clients regarding the decision to purchase the home. Putting aside the fact that such a service goes way beyond the scope of a home inspection, we are not qualified to answer such a question. Items such as personal preference and background, purchase price, price for repair of items listed in our report, terms of the agreement / contract and more must all be considered in such a decision. Therefore, the question of pass / fail is a very personal question that must be made by our clients and encompasses many issues other then the condition of the property.