• Plumbing
• Electrical
• Foundation
• Heating and air conditioning
• Dry rot
• Boat docks
• Sea walls
• Pools

You may need to hire additional inspectors to check for termite damage and to inspect your roof. They will be licensed in these specific areas.

Get a jump start.
The buyer usually pays for an inspection of your home after a purchase contract has been signed. It's the buyer's only full description of the goods he or she is about to purchase, and any flaws found will affect your negotiations. However, you'll be smart to order your own inspection, even before you put your home on the market. Here are a few reasons why:

• A pre-listing inspection helps protect you from liability of any potential seller non-disclosure claims.

• You get valuable information for pricing your home and getting it ready for sale.

• If you choose to do corrective work, you can shop around for the price and contractor of your choice, without a potential buyer's influence.

• Your real estate attorney can review the inspection report and advise you on which corrective work should be done to help facilitate a sale, and which work does not have to be done by you.

Don't wing it.
If you're present for the inspection, don't respond to the inspector's questions by guessing. If you don't know the exact square footage of your home or when certain remodeling or repair work was done, say so. You don't want to take the chance of misrepresenting your property.

Finding an inspector.
Since not all states license inspectors, finding a qualified home inspector isn't always easy. The first place to start is to ask your real estate attorney for a reference. You can also talk to friends or colleagues who have recently bought a home. The American Society of Home Inspectors is a professional association which requires its members to pass exams and perform a minimum of 250 property inspections. For local members, check out the web address at www.ashi.com, or call 1-800-743-2744.

Tips for hiring an inspector:

• Ask the inspector to provide a sample report. Make sure it's legible, descriptive and approaching the length of War and Peace. Seriously! Good reports are mini-booklets of information about your home, not just a series of checked or unchecked boxes.

• Find out what elements of the house are and are not included in the inspection.

• Talk to previous clients of the inspector who have owned their homes for a year or so. Find out if the inspector missed anything significant.

• Don't consider your inspection a guarantee or warranty, but simply the best information possible at an affordable cost.

• By the way, you should try to be on site during the inspection. You'll learn things about your house you may never know otherwise, and it's a great opportunity to ask questions.