Here in New York State, home inspectors are required to be licensed and at minimum, follow the state’s Standards of Practice (SOP’s) for Home Inspection. Click the link and it will take you to the current NYS SOP’s as well as the Code of Ethics that I adhere to.
In summary, here is what will be visually inspected:
Most of your inspection will be maintenance recommendations, conditional evaluations for various systems and components, and minor imperfections. These are useful to know about. However, the issues that really matter will fall into four categories:
Anything in these categories should be addressed. Often, a serious problem can be corrected inexpensively to protect both life and property (especially in categories 2 and 4).
Most sellers are honest and are often surprised to learn of defects uncovered during an inspection. Realize that sellers are under no obligation to repair everything mentioned in the report. No home is perfect. Keep things in perspective. Do not kill your deal over things that do not matter. It is inappropriate to demand that a seller address deferred maintenance, conditions already listed on the seller’s disclosure, or nit-picky items.