When buying a new home, you will have to have two or three separate inspections on the home depending on the financing chosen. The first inspection is just a basic type of overview of the house. However, the second and third inspections should be done by a licensed and reputable inspector who knows what to look for, ensuring the home you buy is in good condition. If there were problems, then the seller would have the responsibility of having some, if not all of the things fixed.
Keep in mind that if you end up with an FHA or VA loan, which are both governmental loans, the inspection would be done at the time of the appraisal, which kind of go hand-in-hand. While there are many important aspects of buying a home, we cannot stress to you enough the importance of having an in-depth home inspection done. Even if you pay good money, the inspector will be able to find things that could end up being a bid deal later on.
For example, you want an inspector who will run the faucets, climb into the attic, go into crawlspaces, and check the house from top to bottom. If problems are found, these can be added to the contract as a contingency. In other words, the problems would have to be fixed as a part of the offer on the home. With this, you are protected after the home is purchased. Just make sure no one tells you that investing in a home inspection is not worth the money.
The goal of the home inspection is to find any defects associated with the property, both small and large. Keep in mind that home inspections are not meant to disclose cosmetic things such as bad paint, old light fixtures, and so on but they are meant to find things such as missing railing, water damage, damaged roof joists, broken garbage disposal, and so on. If you are selling the home, you should go through yourself, looking for things that need to be fixed prior to putting the home on the market. That way, when the buyer does hire an inspector, there is little to nothing to find.