My Inspections

I suppose every inspector has his own idea of what he is about with inspections. I even wrote a book about mine, He found what?, which examines the whole ethos of inspections and the relationship with realtors.

Simply put, I do not want my client to have to come back to me to say I missed something. At best, I do not want him/her to find a substantial problem for the next five to seven years – the normal cycle of house sales. I realize that this is nearly impossible but I try!

So if I discover a problem (or even evidence of a problem) and if I think it will get worse and cause my client money, I put it into the report.

In fact, my saying I will give you a free report if I do not find repairs costing less than the amount of your inspection is not a sales ploy. I would not have had to do that for the last five years. In other words, your inspection with me should be free – the seller should be asked to offset or repair far more than the cost of my inspection.

This is why you never be too concerned about the cost of the inspection. The more the inspector charges, very likely the longer he will be there and the more faults he will find. This means that you are more likely to have more weapons with which to approach the seller.

So often I am asked as a first question, What do you charge? That is, as above, as irrelevant question. Rather ask how long he has been doing the job, how many law suits has he had, how many complaints does he get, how long does he take for an inspection, and does he give a written report or a check-list. Judge these answers from several inspectors and decide accordingly.

More and more often buyers are asking for an inspection BEFORE they make an offer. He/she can then make a firm offer up front. This avoids the ‘double-dipping’ (asking for a reduction in price and then asking for repairs on top) which understandably can annoy sellers so much.

Either way, a thorough home inspection is your, and your realtor’s, best protection against future problems.

If you have any questions, please contact me or Order your inspection now.

Click here to view a sample of a complete inspection report.

To view the report, you will need Abobe Acrobat Reader. This is a free program you can download here.