The 10 Most Common Issues We Find in Indianapolis Home Inspections

After thousands of inspections across Marion, Hamilton, Hendricks, and the surrounding counties, the same handful of issues show up again and again, regardless of neighborhood or price point. None of these are usually dealbreakers on their own — but knowing them in advance helps you set realistic expectations before your own report lands in your inbox.

1–3: Drainage, grading, and gutters

These three travel together as a group and are, by a wide margin, the most common findings we document on any given inspection. Downspouts that dump water right at the foundation instead of extending several feet away, grading that slopes toward the house instead of away from it, and gutters clogged enough to overflow during a heavy rain are all cheap to fix individually and yet responsible for a genuinely disproportionate share of the basement moisture problems we see later.

4–5. Aging electrical panels and missing GFCI protection

Especially common in homes built before 1980, a 60 or 100-amp panel that hasn't been updated can struggle to support modern electrical demand — central air conditioning, an electric range, EV charging equipment. It's not always an immediate safety issue on its own, but it's frequently flagged as a near-term budget item worth planning for once you own the home.

Right alongside that, kitchens, bathrooms, garages, and exterior outlets should all have GFCI (ground-fault) protection installed, and it's extremely common to find one or more of these specific areas without it in homes that predate the current code requirements around wet-area protection. Both issues are usually inexpensive fixes for a licensed electrician to handle in an afternoon.

6–7. HVAC age and dirty or missing filters

HVAC systems in the 15–20 year range show up constantly across our inspections, often still functioning fine day to day but clearly nearing the end of their reasonably expected service life. A dirty or long-overdue filter is even more common than that — an easy fix on its own, but often a visible sign of broader deferred maintenance that's worth asking the seller about directly.

8. Roof flashing issues

Flashing around chimneys, roof-to-wall transitions, and vent penetrations is a frequent weak point we find on roofs of every age. It's a considerably smaller, cheaper repair than a full roof replacement, but if it's ignored for long enough it's the single most common path water actually takes into an attic or wall cavity from above.

9–10. Water heater age and minor plumbing leaks

Water heaters typically last 8–12 years in normal use, and we regularly find units well past that range still in active service, sometimes by a decade or more. Minor supply or drain leaks under sinks — often just a loose fitting or worn washer — are also a near-constant finding across almost every inspection, easy to fix on the spot but worth catching early before they cause real cabinet or subfloor damage over time. For the full picture of what a standard inspection covers beyond just these top ten patterns, see our inspection scope guide.

Key takeaways

• Drainage, grading, and gutter issues are the single most common finding category across every inspection we perform.
• Aging electrical panels and missing GFCI protection are especially common in homes built before 1980.
• HVAC systems in the 15–20 year range and water heaters past 8–12 years show up constantly, still functioning but nearing end of life.
• None of these ten issues are typically dealbreakers on their own, but they're worth budgeting for as a buyer.