Look For These Warning Signs in Your Roof When Buying a Home in Phoenix

House shopping can be incredibly stressful. There are so many factors to take into consideration when you’re walking through a gazillion homes. You are signing up to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into a pre-owned home, so the last thing you want is to discover a huge, costly repair that is needed after you get the keys, especially if that repair involved the roof.

A typical roof repair in Phoenix can cost from $350 – $2000 or more. If you come to find that a roof replacement is in order, that can cost from $6000 – $45,000, depending on the type of roof that is being replaced. That’s a lot of financial burden after having invested so much into the home itself. Fear not, because we have put together a roof inspection guide so that you don’t end up with any unpleasant surprises where your roof is concerned, or worse, overpaying for a home that will immediately demand a new roof.

Water Intrusion

Before you sign off on an offer, you should check for signs of potential roof problems during your walk through. A few telltale signs to be on the lookout for are:

• A freshly painted ceiling – This doesn’t always mean that there is a roof leak, but it could be a sign that someone tried to cover water stains. Best to ask about it rather than leave yourself guessing.
• Water stained ceiling – This is the most obvious sign of a leak in the roof.
• Missing tiles/shingles – This disrupts the integrity of the roof, and if they’ve been missing for a while, the roof certainly may have water damage.
• Curled shingles – If the home you’re looking at has either cedar shakes or asphalt shingles, check the edges for curling. This is a sign that they are coming to the end of their usability.
• Water damage on fascia boards – Check the fascia boards for discoloration or cracking. This could be a sign that the roof is old.

While shingled or flat roofs present potential or existing problems in a more obvious way, tile roofs can seem fine as they hide serious problems underneath. One such potential hidden problem is a deteriorated felt underlayment. This protects the roof from water, and deteriorates over time. It typically needs replacing every 12 – 20 years, so be sure to ask the seller when the last time was that they had the underlayment replaced. If it’s been a while, or they don’t have an answer, make sure that your roof inspector takes extra care on that checkpoint. PHX Roof maintenance is a big part of home ownership, so the seller should be able to answer this without sweating bullets.

Get an Inspection

Of course you will get an inspection by a general home inspector. However, if your inspector recommends that you hire a separate roof inspector, listen to him. Home inspectors have enough general knowledge to spot a potential roofing problem, but unless they are roofers, they are not experts in the field. They may spot a problem that could show potential for a much larger roofing problem, and that problem could lead to a much heftier PHX roof repair. So again, if your home inspector recommends you hire a roof inspector, hire yourself a roof inspector.

After You Find a Problem

So you hired AZ Native Roofing Company to do an inspection on your roof before you finalized your offer, and they have found some issues. There are a few options once you’ve identified a roof problem. You can

• Request that the seller completes the necessary roof repairs or re-roof.
• Request a credit so that you can hire your own roofing company and have the repairs done yourself after closing.
• Do nothing, and continue with the deal, then plan to fix the roof later.
• Pull your offer and walk.

House buying is stressful enough without adding potential roof repairs on the end of the deal, unbeknownst to you. Be proactive and schedule a roof inspection with AZ Native Roofing Company so that we can send our expert roofers out to make sure that the Phoenix home you are investing a small fortune in will have a safe and structurally sound roof from the moment you sign the final documents and get those new keys.

Written By:
Jason Swim – Owner

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