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The home inspection & final walkthrough checklist.

Everything worth looking at before you close — organized by system, tickable as you go, and printable for the walkthrough itself. Including the floating-home and houseboat checks that almost no other brokerage checklist carries.

This checklist helps you know what to look at — on your first visit, during the inspection period, and at the final walkthrough. It does not replace a licensed professional inspection, and it isn’t meant to: a generalist inspector, and often a specialist behind them, will see things no buyer can. What it does is make you a sharper observer and a better question-asker in the short window you have.

The companion read: why hire licensed trade professionals When a checkbox below turns into a question mark, this explains which specialist to call — roofer, plumber, electrician, HVAC pro, or marine surveyor — and how their findings become negotiating leverage.

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Your ticks save in this browser — pick up where you left off.

Exterior, roof & gutters

Start outside — Puget Sound weather tests the building envelope first.

Foundation, basement & drainage

Plumbing

Electrical

Heating & cooling

Interior: windows, doors & floors

Attic, insulation & ventilation

Appliances & fixtures

Safety

The signature-niche section

Floating homes & houseboats

This is where standard checklists stop — and where Lake Union Living, our floating-home resource, begins. Look at everything below, then plan on a marine surveyor and a dive inspection for the float or hull: that underwater look is the specialty inspection unique to this kind of home.

The final walkthrough (day of closing)

A separate, shorter pass right before you sign — confirming the home you're closing on is the home you agreed to buy.

Found something that worries you? Good — that’s the checklist doing its job. The next move is rarely walking away: it’s bringing in the right licensed professional — our vendor partner network is where we start that search — to size the problem, then using what they document when weighing and negotiating offers. To understand how big the finding really is before the bids come back, the home-systems diagram puts every system’s cost tier and lifespan side by side. If the home floats, start with our houseboat & floating-home guide — and for anything else, Ask Linda or browse current listings with sharper eyes than you had an hour ago.

“Linda is a kind and generous agent who quickly established an easy and trustworthy connection with us. We've worked with her on a purchase and a sale, and we are very happy. I think she thinks of her clients as family!”

Kevin F Google review (opens in new tab) · November 2023

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