Home buyers guide to home inspections, yes you do need to get one.
You've found the house. You're under contract. And now there's a stranger with a flashlight and a moisture meter spending three or four hours crawling around the attic of the home you're about to buy and their not saying much. If you've never gone through this before, the home inspection can feel like the scariest part of the whole process — mostly because nobody explains what it actually is until you're living it.
Here's the thing: a home inspection isn't a pass/fail test. It's information. In a place like Hays County — where you'll find everything from 1980s ranch houses on well and septic to brand-new builds in Caliterra and Headwaters — that information looks different from house to house, and knowing what you're actually paying for (and what you're not) changes how you use it.
What a Standard Inspection Actually Covers
Texas is one of the few states where home inspectors are licensed and regulated, and that matters for you as a buyer. Every Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) inspector works from the same standardized report — the REI 7-6 form — which breaks the house into six categories:
Structural Systems — foundation, roof, attic, walls, windows, doors, and stairs
Electrical Systems — the service entrance, panel, circuits, outlets, and fixtures
Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning — the HVAC units, ductwork, and vents
Plumbing Systems — supply and drain lines, fixtures, and the water heater
Appliances — dishwasher, range, oven, microwave, and vent hood
Optional Systems — things like irrigation, gas lines, and outbuildings, which some inspectors include and some don't, so ask upfront
Because the report format is standardized, one inspector's write-up on a 1990s home in Driftwood will be organized the same way as another inspector's write-up on a new build in Belterra. That consistency is useful — it means you can compare findings across houses without learning a new format each time.
To get to Professional Inspector status and sign off on a report solo, someone has to complete pre-licensing education, work supervised inspections under a licensed inspector, and pass the state exam. I truly cannot stress this enough: always confirm your inspector's TREC license number before you hire them — it's public record, and it's the easiest way to know you're getting someone accountable to the state's standards, not just someone with a ladder and a flashlight.
What It Doesn't Cover (And Why That Matters Out Here)
The general inspection is a visual, non-invasive review — the inspector isn't cutting into walls, running dye tests, or digging up your yard. A few things fall outside the standard scope entirely, and they're worth knowing about before you're deep in your option period wondering why nobody mentioned them:
Septic systems. A large share of homes in Dripping Springs and Driftwood are outside city sewer service and rely on septic, which the Texas Health and Safety Code and Hays County Development Services regulate separately from the general home inspection. A septic inspection is its own appointment with its own inspector.
Wells. Same story — well water quality and flow rate testing is a specialty inspection, not part of the standard report.
WDI (termite) inspections. Wood-destroying insect reports are a separate, TDA-regulated inspection, often required by lenders.
Foundation elevation surveys. A general inspector will note visible cracking or doors that don't close right, but a precise elevation survey — genuinely useful in Hill Country's expansive clay soils — is its own add-on.
Pool and spa inspections. If the home has a pool, that's a specialty inspection too, not something folded into the general report.
Sewer scopes. For homes on city sewer with older cast-iron or clay lines, a camera scope of the line itself is a separate service.
None of this means something is wrong with a given house — it just means "get an inspection" is really shorthand for "get the right combination of inspections for this specific property," and that combination looks different for a septic home on five acres off Darden Hill Road than it does for a townhome in a DSISD-zoned subdivision on city utilities.
What It Costs and When It Happens
In the Austin area, a standard inspection generally runs $350 to $700, scaled to the size of the house — roughly $350 for something under 1,500 square feet, climbing to around $700 for a 4,500-to-5,000-square-foot home. Specialty add-ons stack on top of that: a sewer scope typically runs around $175, a WDI/termite inspection around $120, a pool and spa inspection around $125, and foundation elevation measurements around $100. Septic inspections are usually quoted separately depending on the system type.
All of this happens during your option period — the negotiated window in a Texas contract, most commonly 7 to 10 calendar days, where you pay a small, non-refundable option fee (typically $200 to $500, credited back toward your purchase price at closing) for the unrestricted right to terminate the contract for any reason. That fee and structure is exactly what makes the inspection low-risk: it's the period built into Texas contracts specifically so you can find out what you're actually buying before you're locked in.
That window moves fast. Scheduling a general inspector, plus a septic inspector, plus possibly a well or foundation specialist, inside a 7-to-10-day option period means you want to line up your inspectors the day your contract goes effective — not a few days in.
What to Do With the Report
The inspection report isn't a to-do list for the seller — it's information you use to decide one of three things: move forward as-is, negotiate repairs or a price adjustment through an amendment, or terminate during your option period if what you find changes your mind about the house. Most reports come back with a mix of genuinely minor items (a loose cabinet hinge, a GFCI outlet that needs resetting) and a smaller number of things worth a real conversation — active roof leaks, electrical panels with outdated wiring, foundation movement, or HVAC systems near the end of their life.
The goal isn't a zero-item report — that essentially doesn't exist, even on new construction. The goal is knowing which items are cosmetic, which are maintenance you'd want to budget for either way, and which are the kind of thing that should change how you think about the deal.
Questions to Ask Your Inspector Before They Leave
Which items on this report are safety issues versus maintenance items versus cosmetic?
Is anything here something a licensed specialist (electrician, foundation engineer, HVAC tech) should look at before I decide anything?
If this were your house, what would you actually fix before moving in?
Are there any items that could affect financing or insurability?
All data and information and advice is deemed accurate and reliable but not guaranteed and should always be independently verified — inspection costs and option period norms shift, and every property is different.
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