Before you close on a home, check the roof flashing instead of just the roof age, read the walls for the signature of a hidden water repair, and pull the permit history at the county. I have spent years building and developing homes before I sold them, and the issues that cost buyers real money are rarely the ones a showing puts in front of you. This checklist covers what to look for, in the order I look for it.
- Start before you ever walk in: what do the permits say?
- What should you check first when you walk through a home?
- How do you spot a wall that was repaired for a water leak?
- What cosmetic details should you look at closely during a showing?
- What should you ask about the electrical panel?
- What should you ask about the HVAC, roof, and pool before you close?
- Who should you hire beyond the general home inspector?
- What minor-looking issues get expensive later?
- Frequently asked questions
Start Before You Ever Walk In: What Do the Permits Say?
Before you tour a single home, pull its permit history from the county building department, because unpermitted work is the one defect that can cost you the repair, the insurance, and the right to keep what you bought. I look at this before I look at anything else, and buyers rarely think to ask for it. A room addition, a pool enclosure, or an electrical upgrade that was never permitted is not automatically a dealbreaker, but it changes how you should treat the rest of the inspection. Insurers who find unpermitted work tied to a claim deny it at a much higher rate than a standard claim, and in some cases they deny coverage on the whole policy, not just the affected area. In Florida, many municipalities will let you apply for an after-the-fact permit to bring the work up to code, but that process has a cost and a timeline, and you want to know about it before you make an offer, not after.
Anything you can replace in place, a fixture, an appliance, flooring, is cheap. Anything that requires opening a wall, moving a load-bearing wall, rerouting plumbing under a slab, or getting a new permit is expensive.
What Should You Check First When You Walk Through a Home?
Check the roof flashing before you ask how old the roof is, because roofs almost never fail out in the open field. They fail at the valleys, the penetrations, and the transitions where the roof meets a wall. A fourteen-year-old roof with correctly installed flashing will outperform a four-year-old roof where the flashing details were done wrong. In Florida, the most common roof type is concrete tile, and a flashing assembly that looks fine today can start leaking within a year or two if it was installed incorrectly. This is exactly the kind of detail a general home inspector, who is checking whether the roof is leaking right now, can miss. A roofing professional looking specifically at flashing details will not.
How Do You Spot a Wall That Was Repaired for a Water Leak?
Look closely at cracked tile, worn kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, scratched wood flooring, torn screens, and older windows, because none of these fall under a standard inspection contingency and all of them become your expense the day after closing. A home inspection contingency is written around whether a system functions, not whether it looks good or has years of useful life left. Buyers walk through a showing focused on layout and finishes and miss the wear that will cost them money within the first year of ownership. Cabinet doors that do not sit flush, flooring that shows heavy traffic wear, and windows that still operate but are clearly past their prime are worth pricing into your offer, because the seller has no obligation to address them for you. If you want to see this kind of detail in person before you commit to a private showing, our upcoming Naples-area open houses are a low-pressure way to practice looking for it.
What Cosmetic Details Should You Look at Closely During a Showing?
You spot a water repair by reading the wall backward. Fresh paint low on a wall, one new section of drywall on an otherwise original interior wall, and baseboard that does not match the trim in the rest of the room are the signature of a patched leak, not a decorating choice. Sellers are not required to disclose every past repair in detail, and a clean patch job can look like routine maintenance to someone who is not looking for it. I look at where the repair sits, not just whether it looks tidy. A patch near a bathroom, a kitchen, or an exterior wall deserves a second look before you assume it was cosmetic.
What Should You Ask About the Electrical Panel?
Ask about the electrical panel's capacity, not just its condition, because the panel decides whether a future kitchen remodel or an EV charger is a modest job or a full service upgrade. A panel that is functioning fine today can still be undersized for what you want to add later. This is a detail most buyers never think to ask about during a showing, and it rarely comes up unless you raise it yourself. Knowing the panel's amperage and how much capacity is already spoken for tells you what your renovation budget actually needs to include.
What Should You Ask About the HVAC, Roof, and Pool Before You Close?
Ask for the age of the HVAC system, the roof, the windows and doors, and the pool equipment, because a home inspection contingency only requires that these systems work at the time of purchase, not that they have meaningful life left in them. A ten-year-old HVAC system that is running fine today can still need replacement within a couple of years, and that expense lands on you, not the seller. This is the gap between what an inspection covers and what ownership actually costs, and it is where most of the buyer's remorse I hear about after closing comes from.
Who Should You Hire Beyond the General Home Inspector?
Hire a dedicated HVAC technician, a licensed roofing professional, and a licensed mold inspector in addition to your general home inspector, because a general inspection is built to cover the entire house in a single visit and answer broad questions. It is looking for whether the roof is leaking right now, not whether the flashing details were done correctly and are likely to fail soon. A focused specialist trains a highly experienced eye on one system, and that is where the details a general inspection misses tend to surface. In Florida specifically, these three areas, HVAC, roofing, and mold, are common enough problem points that the cost of a dedicated inspection is small next to what a missed issue can cost you later. If you have not started your search yet, you can browse available Naples-area properties and start building this checklist into your search from the beginning.
What Minor-Looking Issues Get Expensive Later?
The issues that look minor and get expensive later are almost always hidden behind a finished surface. A misassembled flashing detail on a concrete tile roof looks like nothing until it starts leaking, and by then you are often looking at repairs beyond just the flashing itself. Mold growth inside an HVAC air handler frequently does not show up in a standard air quality sample, because the equipment has to be opened up and inspected directly to find it, and once it is found, the air handler often needs to be disassembled and cleaned. A small pinhole leak in a pool line can take real time and cost to even locate, let alone repair.
| Category | Examples | Why It Costs What It Costs |
|---|---|---|
| Cheap: replaceable in place | Light fixtures, appliances, flooring, interior paint, cabinet hardware, screens | No structural work, no permit, swapped out on its own timeline |
| Expensive: behind a finished surface | Roof flashing reassembly, HVAC air handler mold remediation, slab plumbing reroutes | Requires specialized labor and, often, disassembly to even diagnose the problem |
| Expensive: structural or systemic | Load-bearing wall changes, unpermitted work correction, electrical service panel upgrade | Requires engineering review, permitting, and inspection before the work can close out |
| Expensive: hard to locate | Pool equipment pinhole leaks | Diagnosis alone can take significant time before repair even begins |
Why Trust an Engineer's Take on What to Check Before You Buy?
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Most of what costs a buyer money is invisible from the curb.
Matt Brown is a Naples, Florida luxury real estate advisor with William Raveis Real Estate and a Penn State-trained engineer who spent years as a developer and builder before moving into real estate full time. With more than $700 million in career sales across 23+ years in real estate, Matt Brown, Naples luxury real estate advisor, evaluates construction quality the way most agents are not trained to. His degree and his years on the construction side shape how he reads a property, where other agents see finishes, he is looking at flashing details, panel capacity, and permit history. If you are buying a home in Southwest Florida and want someone who catches what a showing does not, reach out below.
What Questions Do Buyers Ask Most Before They Close?
How old is too old for a roof in Florida?
Roof age alone does not tell you whether a roof needs replacement, the condition of the flashing at valleys, penetrations, and wall transitions matters more than the number of years on the roof. A roof in the 15 to 20 year range is worth a closer, dedicated inspection regardless of how it looks from the ground, because that is when flashing materials and sealants typically start to reach the end of their lifespan. I would rather see a fourteen-year-old roof with correctly installed flashing than a four-year-old roof where the flashing was rushed, because the flashing is where the leak actually starts.
Does a standard home inspection cover mold?
A standard home inspection typically checks for visible signs of mold and moisture, but it does not include the invasive testing a dedicated mold inspector performs inside HVAC equipment, so mold growing inside an air handler can go undetected. A general inspector is not opening up the equipment to look, and a standard air sample does not always catch what is growing inside a closed system. If you want mold ruled out with confidence, a dedicated inspector who opens the equipment is the only way to know for certain, and it is worth the added cost on any home with an older HVAC system.
What does a home inspection contingency actually require?
A home inspection contingency requires that major systems function at the time of purchase, not that they have significant useful life left, which is why an aging roof or HVAC system can pass inspection and still need replacement soon after closing. That distinction is worth understanding before you sign, because it shapes what you can and cannot ask the seller to address. Knowing the age of each major system before you write your offer lets you negotiate with that gap in mind, instead of discovering it after you already own the house.
Why does unpermitted work matter if the house looks fine?
Unpermitted work matters because it can affect your ability to insure the home and your rights if something fails later, since insurers investigating a claim tied to unpermitted work deny those claims at a noticeably higher rate than standard claims. A house can look completely finished and still carry this risk, which is why the permit history is worth checking before the cosmetics ever come into play. In Florida, many municipalities allow an after-the-fact permit application to bring older unpermitted work up to code, but that process takes time and money, and you want to know about it before closing, not after.
Should I hire a separate roof and HVAC inspector if I already have a general inspector?
Yes, a separate roof and HVAC inspection is worth the added cost, because a focused specialist examines one system in depth while a general inspector is covering an entire house in a single visit. The dedicated inspection tends to catch the details, like flashing installation or early-stage HVAC issues, that a broader inspection is not built to find. For general buyer process questions beyond inspections, such as financing timelines and contingency deadlines, our buyer FAQ page covers the rest of the purchase process.
