Inspection contingency
Also called: inspection period, due diligence period, inspection clause, home inspection contingency
A clause in a purchase contract giving the buyer a set period — usually 7–10 days after acceptance — to inspect the house and then renegotiate, ask for repairs or credits, or cancel and keep the deposit. It runs on a licensed inspector's written report.
The contingency is the buyer’s only structured chance to learn what the seller didn’t disclose or didn’t know. It starts when both sides sign, and it ends on a date in the contract; miss it and the right to cancel over the inspection is gone. Inside the window the buyer orders the inspection, receives the report, gets specialist evaluations and repair quotes for anything serious, and then does one of three things: asks for repairs before closing, asks for a credit or price reduction, or cancels. The seller can agree, counter, or refuse; if the sides can’t agree, the buyer walks with the earnest money.
The report is the instrument. Agents and sellers negotiate from a licensed inspector’s written findings with photos; a lender’s appraisal, the seller’s disclosure, and a buyer’s own notes don’t carry the same weight. Repair requests are strongest when they’re priced — a roofer’s quote for the roof the inspector flagged — which is why the window has to fit a specialist visit too.
In hot markets buyers are pressured to waive the contingency or shorten it to a few days. A middle path is a pre-offer inspection (paid for before the offer, at the risk of losing the house) or an “informational” inspection with the right to cancel but not to negotiate. Waiving it altogether trades $400 for whatever’s in the walls.