Housing inventory climbed to 4.9 months’ worth of supply in August, the highest level in more than a decade, according to the National Association of Realtors. That single number helps explain why buyers in a growing number of markets no longer feel pressured to bid blind on a house they toured for eight rushed minutes. Real estate agents describe a newer habit taking hold instead: buyers scheduling a walk-through with a licensed contractor or inspector in tow, sometimes before a seller has collected a single offer. NAR’s own Realtors Confidence Index shows 20% of buyers waived their inspection contingency in the most recent monthly reading, up from 16% just a month earlier — but agents say that figure only tells half the story, since many of those buyers had already paid a professional to walk the property before they wrote a single line of an offer. The approach swaps the traditional post-offer inspection window for a pre-offer gut check. It is changing how quickly, and how confidently, buyers are willing to move.
Room to Look Before You Leap
The shift starts with supply. NAR reported that existing-home sales slipped 2.0% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.98 million, even as inventory swelled to that 4.9-month cushion. “The ample supply of homes for sale on the market is giving homebuyers better opportunities to negotiate,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in the association’s August sales report. Fewer bidding wars mean fewer buyers feel forced to waive due diligence just to get a signature on paper. It also means more buyers have the time to line up a second set of eyes before they ever commit to a price.
That extra runway matters because renovation costs, not just the sale price, now shape a lot of offer decisions. A buyer touring a dated ranch house with a contractor beside them can leave with a rough number for a new roof or an updated electrical panel before drafting an offer, instead of discovering it during a rushed contingency window after they are already under contract.
The Waiver Numbers Tell Only Half the Story
On paper, inspection contingency waivers look like they are creeping back up nationally, not down. NAR’s Confidence Index put the waiver rate at 20% in its latest monthly survey, up from 16% the month before it and 18% a year earlier. Real estate professionals argue the raw percentage understates what is actually happening in the field, because a buyer who already had a contractor’s opinion on the property has less reason to insist on a separate, formal contingency later in the process. They have effectively front-loaded the due diligence that NAR’s own consumer guidance has long recommended, hiring someone from a credentialed group like the American Society of Home Inspectors before the offer stage rather than after it.
Sellers and State Lawmakers Are Taking Notice
The broader waiver trend hasn’t gone unnoticed by regulators. Massachusetts’s Affordable Homes Act added inspection-related protections that took effect in late 2025, and New York has debated similar legislation aimed at limiting waived inspections in tight markets. Sarah Gustafson, then-president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, said the practical impact would likely be modest, telling NAR in remarks published on nar.realtor that “the market was already shifting back toward offers including inspections.” Agents say that shift is increasingly happening earlier in the process, with buyers doing the legwork before they put a number on paper rather than after.
Speed Still Wins
Buyers racing the clock haven’t slowed down, even as they add this extra step. Agents interviewed by CBS News about standing out in a crowded market still stress speed above nearly everything else: getting pre-approved before touring, viewing new listings the day they hit the market, and moving fast enough to end the bidding before an open house even happens. Compass agent Lauren Hurwitz recommends buyers make offers strong enough to “put an end to open houses” entirely. Bringing a contractor to a showing fits that same instinct. It compresses two steps that used to happen weeks apart, the tour and the inspection, into a single appointment, so a buyer can move quickly without moving blind.
What It Means Going Forward
For sellers, the practical upshot is that a buyer’s contractor might already be checking the water heater’s age during a Sunday open house, long before any paperwork appears. For buyers, the few hundred dollars an inspection typically costs, according to NAR, is increasingly treated as a scouting expense rather than a formal contract contingency. With supply still elevated compared with most of the past decade, real estate agents don’t expect that pattern to reverse before the spring market resets the competitive temperature again.
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