Initial inspection
Once you’ve found a home or homes you’re interested in, use our Home inspection checklist (PDF) to do an initial inspection yourself.  You should take the time to do an initial inspection on any homes in your ‘shortlist’ – this will tell you whether there are any obvious faults that rule them out as a possible purchase. 

This isn’t the kind of inspection you’ll be able to do during an open home, so you’ll want to arrange a visit with the agent specifically for this purpose.

Other types of inspection
If it looks good after your initial inspection, you may want to get the experts in to conduct some further checks to make sure you know exactly what you may be getting into.  Land Information memorandum (LIM) reports, building and/or engineering reports and valuation reports are all valuable sources of information.

Building and valuation reports may have higher costs, so you can either have them done before you make an offer, or you can make satisfactory LIM building and/or valuation reports conditions of your offer.

It’s wise to have these done beforehand if:

• You’re intending to bid for a property at auction (since if your bid is successful at an auction you’re committed to buying the property), or
• If you're intending to make an unconditional offer in an offer and negotiation, or tender process.

For more information about these types of reports and about conditions, see our Making an offer section. 

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