It depends upon the risk your willing to take and your understanding of the contract, whether it be the MAR or Regional contract. There are differences. As for those your mentioned:
-Lead- Generally a deal killer- Any pre-1978 home likely has lead. As long as it is not peeling, you are likely okay. Visit www.EPA.gov for more info on Lead, Asbestos, and Radon.

- Home Inspection- You have options and need to discuss with your Realtor. 1) If you can, consider doing it before you submit an offer. Downside is that there's no guarantee you would still get the house and could be out hundreds of dollarrs. 2) Keep the time frame short and clear the inspection quickly. Just make sure you can get it done within the allotted time. 3) Do an informational inspection only where you may not ask for repairs to be completed but could still declare the contract null & void if needed.
- Termite - Don't waive unless needed. It's built into both contracts.
- HOA- CAN NOT be waived regardless of what another agent may tell you. This is MD and VA law. Sorry as I don't know DC law on this.
- Appraisal- Gets tricky- Depends upon the amount of your down payment. Generally can be built into the financing contingency. If it doesn't appraise, it could affect the stated financing in the contract and afford you a means out if needed.

Bottom line. Consult a Realtor who understands these aspects and can protect you if needed.

Good luck!

Termites

There are only three main items I look at when purchasing a property.

1. Roof condition and cost of repairs/replacement.
2. Foundation stability.
3. Utilities and if they require updating AND if they meed code.

Appraisal

Inspection - 1980's home so figured would be the roof and it has a single zone system. It was in the zip code we wanted so figured we could spend the money to fix those since we were offering below asking.

Termits

Radon

In DC all houses older than 1979 are now presumed to have lead for discourse purposes. But the question is the condition of the lead. We waived inspection and I regret it because there turned out to be badly deteriorating lead windowsills. If we had been more on the ball we could have found it ourselves though.

Homes in a HOA also have the HOA docs as a contingency.

In terms of lead, if the current owner doesn't know whether there is any lead in the home's painted surfaces, you can do a lead test during inspection and bring it up as a reason to not want the home. So it would fall under the inspection contingency.

Lead is not a reasonable contingency because most of the older homes in the area probably have had lead painted on a surface at some point. The two most common are:

1) Appraisal
2) Inspection--and this should be for biggies, not small things (e.g., structural, major termite damage, significant mold)

We got an inspector in beforehand to make sure there were no big surprises, and figured that anything small would be under $1,000 and not worth losing the house over.

Also, we knew the market pretty well and were not worried about the house not appraising (plus we probably could have brought extra money to the table), or us not being able to get a mortgage.

I think without waiving those two contingencies we would not have gotten the house, and we've been very happy here and hoping to stay 20 more years.

I don't think of lead as a contingency-- I think they are obligated to disclose what they know (but only what they know, so people often don't test).

Financing
Inspection

If you who've waived a contingency when making an offer, what was your thinking? Thinking specifically of lead, home inspection etc.