The standard Arizona Association of Realtors purchase contract states that a buyer has ten days to conduct home inspections when purchasing real estate.
This may not be enough and the contract allows a buyer to take more time to perform inspections but the buyer must specifically state in the contract how much time he needs. The ten days is written into the template that realtors use, but the buyer can put in a higher (or lower) number in the contract.
There are several types of inspections that a buyer can perform. The buyer may hire a home inspector to do a general visual inspection of the entire property. Please note that the general home inspection is visual only, which means what the inspector can see with his naked eye. There are many potential problems that cannot be seen with the naked eye. That is why a buyer may want more thorough inspections of major parts of the property like the roof, electrical system, pool, etc. Also, the visual inspection by the home inspector may reveal information that needs further investigation and the 10 day inspection period may not be sufficient to complete additional inspections. Once the contract is signed by both buyer and seller, it is usually too late to ask for more time, so the buyer needs to anticipate what his needs may be so he can adequately protect himself when signing a binding real estate purchase contract.