Immediately after contract acceptance begins the inspection process. Industry standard for the inspection period is 10 days after acceptance. The day of contract acceptance is day 0, the following day is day 1. These are defined as calendar days, not business days. During this timeframe the buyer will schedule a home inspection to be completed and the home inspector will contact the seller for a timeframe to gain access to the home. The inspection itself is usually around 3-4 hours and the buyers show up the last 30 minutes to obtain the report. Once this report is provided, the buyer is able to request repairs, if any, to the seller. This request must be formally submitted to the owner prior to the expiration of the 10th or final day of the inspection period. Sellers then typically have 5 days to reply with what they are willing to repair if any. If the seller accepts all buyer requests, this finalizes the inspection period and closes the contingency. If the seller only agrees to some or none of the repairs, the buyer then has 5 days to decide if they want to continue with the real estate transaction or cancel and obtain their earnest money back.
The buyer does also have the ability to accept the property condition as is which closes the inspection period, or reject the property in the current condition without any request for repairs. Although this rejection must be formally submitted prior to the expiration of the inspection period. If the buyer does not submit any requests or cancelation prior to the inspection period expiring, the property is accepted as is and the transaction proceeds.