What Is an Inspection Contingency?

An inspection contingency is a clause in your purchase contract that gives you a set number of days to have the house inspected and then, based on what turns up, ask the seller for repairs or a credit, or walk away and get your earnest money back. Miss the deadline and that protection usually ends. That’s the whole idea: a short window where you can still say no without losing money.

Here’s how the clause works in practice, what to inspect inside that window, and where buyers lose their leverage.

01What the clause actually says

Most inspection contingencies have four parts. Read your contract for each one before you sign:

• The inspection period. How many days you have, counted from the date the contract is signed by both sides (often called the “effective” or “acceptance” date). Seven to ten days is common, but it’s negotiable.
• What you can inspect. Usually “any inspections the buyer chooses, at the buyer’s expense.” Some contracts list them.
• How you respond. The form you use to ask for repairs or credits, or to cancel, and the deadline for sending it.
• What happens if you say nothing. This is the part people skip. Under many contracts, if your deadline passes without a written objection, you’re treated as having accepted the house as-is.

Check whether your contract counts calendar days or business days. A ten-day calendar window that starts on a Thursday includes two weekends’ worth of inspector availability problems.

02How the rules differ by state

Most states use a contract form written by the state Realtor association or the local board, so the mechanics vary. Three examples show how much:

• California. The standard California Association of Realtors purchase agreement gives the buyer 17 days to investigate the property unless the parties write in a different number. The contingency doesn’t vanish on day 18. The buyer has to remove it in writing, and if they don’t, the seller can send a Notice to Buyer to Perform, which gives the buyer a short window (two days by default) before the seller can cancel.
• Texas. Texas contracts handle this with an “option period” instead. You pay the seller a small, nonrefundable option fee (often a few hundred dollars) for the unrestricted right to back out for any reason during a set number of days. Back out in time and your earnest money comes back; the option fee doesn’t. After the option period ends, inspection results alone generally won’t get your earnest money back.
• Many other states. Contracts often use a “passive” setup: if you don’t object in writing by the deadline, the contingency is considered satisfied.

The point: don’t assume your contract works like a friend’s in another state. Ask your agent, or a real estate attorney in states where attorneys handle closings, exactly when your window closes and what you have to send to keep it open. Check your state’s standard form.

03What to inspect inside the window

The contingency covers whatever inspections you order before the deadline. Book them the day your offer is accepted, because inspectors in busy markets can be booked out several days.

General home inspection

A general home inspection covers the roof, structure, electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling, and the visible parts of the attic, crawl space and basement. Expect two to four hours on site for an average house and a written report within a day or two. Most buyers pay roughly $300 to $425, with a national average around $344 (HomeAdvisor cost data, as of June 2026). Big or old houses cost more.

Go to the inspection. You’ll learn more in the last half hour, walking through findings with the inspector, than from reading the report alone.

Add-ons worth considering

• Wood-destroying insect (termite) inspection. Required by VA lenders in many states and common in the South and other termite-heavy areas.
• Radon test. The EPA’s real estate testing protocol calls for at least 48 hours of testing with the house closed up, and recommends fixing the home if the result is 4 pCi/L or higher. Start the test early, because a 48-hour test plus lab time eats a big chunk of a 10-day window.
• Sewer scope. A camera run through the main drain line to the street. Worth it for older houses and anywhere with big trees near the lateral.
• Septic, well water, chimney, or a structural engineer when the general inspector flags something outside their scope.

Mold testing is a judgment call. If there’s visible growth or a musty smell, the moisture source matters more than a lab result naming the species. Fixing the leak is the actual repair.

04A timeline that doesn’t run out of days

On a 10-day contingency, a workable schedule looks like this:

1. Day 0–1: Offer accepted. Book the general inspection and any add-ons. Deposit earnest money as the contract requires.
2. Day 2–4: Inspections happen. Radon test placed.
3. Day 4–6: Reports arrive. If something needs a specialist (a cracked foundation wall, an old electrical panel, a roof near the end of its life), call them now and get a written bid.
4. Day 6–8: Decide what to ask for. Write the request with your agent.
5. Day 8–9: Send it. Leave room for the seller’s answer before your deadline if your contract requires an agreement within the window.

If a specialist can’t get out in time, ask the seller in writing for an extension before the deadline passes. Sellers often agree, but a verbal “sure, take a few more days” won’t protect you.

05Asking for repairs or a credit

An inspection report on a perfectly good house can run 40 or 50 pages of items. Don’t send the seller the whole list. Sort it into three piles:

• Safety and big-ticket defects: active roof leaks, foundation movement, a furnace with a cracked heat exchanger, double-tapped breakers or ungrounded wiring, missing GFCI protection near water, failing water heater, sewer line breaks. These are what you ask about.
• Things you’d want to know but can live with: a roof with five years left, an older but working AC unit. Use them to set your budget, and maybe bring them up if the seller pushes back on the first pile.
• Maintenance: caulking, a loose doorknob, dirty filters, paint. Leave these off. Asking for them makes the whole request look unserious.

For each item you do ask about, cite the page in the report, attach a photo, and if you can, attach a contractor’s bid. “Replace water heater, $1,850 per attached quote” gets a faster yes than “water heater is old.”

Repairs vs. credit

Many buyers prefer a credit (or a price reduction) over seller repairs. A seller who’s moving out has every reason to hire the cheapest contractor. If you do accept repairs, require receipts from licensed contractors and permits where your town requires them, and check the work at your final walk-through.

Credits have a catch: lenders cap how much the seller can contribute toward your closing costs, and the cap depends on the loan type and your down payment. Ask your lender before you agree to a number.

What the seller can do

The seller doesn’t have to fix anything. They can agree, offer part of what you asked for, offer a credit instead, or say no. If you can’t reach a deal before your deadline, you can still cancel under the contingency, as long as you do it in writing and on time.

The seller is also weighing what happens if you walk. In many states, once a seller knows about a material defect, they have to disclose it to the next buyer, so the next offer may run into the same issue.

06Walking away and getting your earnest money back

Earnest money is usually 1% to 3% of the price: $3,000 to $9,000 on a $300,000 house. It sits in escrow and goes toward your closing costs if the deal closes.

If you cancel within the contingency period, following the contract’s notice rules, the deposit normally comes back to you. Send the termination on the form your contract names, keep proof of when it was delivered, and don’t let a deadline slide because a conversation is “going well.”

What you won’t get back: the money you spent on inspections, and in Texas, the option fee. Escrow releases can also take time, because many contracts require both parties to sign a release before the escrow holder pays out. If a seller refuses to sign, that’s a question for a real estate attorney.

07Should you ever waive it?

Some buyers drop the contingency to make an offer stand out. NAR’s monthly Realtors Confidence Index found 18% of buyers waived the inspection contingency in March 2026, down from 22% a year earlier.

If you’re tempted, there are middle options:

• Informational-only inspection. You keep the right to inspect and to walk away, but promise not to ask for repairs. Sellers like this much more than an open repair request.
• A higher threshold. Agree not to ask about anything under, say, $1,000 per item.
• Pre-offer inspection. Inspect before you bid, if the seller allows it. You pay for an inspection on a house you may not get, but you bid knowing what you’re buying.

Waiving outright makes sense mainly when you can afford a surprise $15,000 repair (a roof, a sewer line) without it wrecking your finances.

08Before you sign the offer

• Find the inspection deadline in your contract and put it in your calendar.
• Know what happens if you say nothing by that date.
• Line up an inspector before you make the offer, so you can book them the same day.
• Decide which add-on tests (radon, termite, sewer scope) the house needs.
• Know where your earnest money goes and what it takes to get it back.

The one thing to remember: the contingency only protects you if you act in writing before the deadline.

Related: How Does a Home Inspection Help Buyers? Unlocking the Mysteries of Home Inspections