With the high inventory of homes on the market, there will be many purchases over the coming year. While most homes don’t need a specialized engineering inspection (a standard residential home inspection will do), there may be engineering-related conditions at your property that would warrant one. Here’s a partial list of such conditions:

Foundation settlement
Roof unevenness
Leaning retaining walls
Poor drainage (Most damage is directly or indirectly caused by water.)

These conditions constitute a partial failure of some system and you will likely want to have answers to questions such as:

What caused it?
Will it get worse?
What can be done to fix it?

Pre-purchase engineering reports are stamped and signed by a licensed professional engineer and carry the weight needed to be used as bargaining tools, or, in the case of “as-is” sales, they will give you the confidence to know whether to proceed with the purchase or walk away.