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| The Home Inspection Process | |
 Nationwide, studies many years ago have shown the average home inspection turns up more than $2,500 worth of reportable deficiencies. Many houses exceed $10,000 easily today.
If you wish to have the seller repair some items or wish to pursue a reduction in price, you must inform the seller in writing that the inspection is disapproved, but will be approved "under the following conditions". Then request whatever you wish to negotiate be it price reduction, closing costs, repairs, or a combination. Lately in this crazy market, multiple offers to buy a single home have become common. In these cases "pre-inspections" are common, where the home is inspected by numerous buyers prior to submitting an offer and the buyer adjusts their offer accordingly. New Construction | |
| New homes makes up about 30% of inspection requests. But didn't the municipal inspector just get through looking at the building? Yes, but they spend mere moments on their inspections, don't look at flashing and siding issues, the roof, workmanship issues, trade responsibility overlaps, the crawlspace, the attic, etc. They are looking only for immediate life safety items. New construction inspections are quite honestly more valuable to the consumer than inspections performed on older homes, since virtually 100% of the defects are repaired at no cost by the builder, with no further bargaining necessary. Pre-Listing Inspection This information may be hard to believe or conceptualize coming from a home inspection company, but generally pre-listing inspections are discouraged, except in the case of absentee landlords and so forth. Some real estate agents try to pursuade people to get their home inspected prior to putting it on the market. They feel the more you know about the home the better off you and the buyer will be. While there is truth in that well-meaning sentiment, given the disclosure laws in the state of Washington a pre-inspection will only serve to hurt the seller financially and at increased risk of litigation. Why? As a seller you are required to divulge everything you are aware of that is defective in your home. And I fully condone this. This should be done completely and fully to the best of your knowledge. However, nowhere is there a requirement to actually hire a professional to find defects before you sell. This increases your liability by increasing your standard of care and reporting, clouds the concept of "actual knowledge", and shifts the burden of discovering defects from the buyer to the seller. Don't do it. "Defects" are very subjective and everyone has a different idea of "acceptable". This will only lead to disappointments. Call us when you want to buy. Used Condominiums Buying a condominium involves buying a portion of an association of owners. You own a portion of whatever problems the entire association owns. Unfortunately literally thousands of local condo owners have been stuck with huge unexpected assessments from their associations for repairs to the exterior of their buildings due to lack of maintenance, faulty materials, or shoddy original design and construction. So what do most inspection companies do? They completely exclude the exterior portion of the building for "liability" reasons. The inspection industry unfortunately is paranoid of lawsuits (generally due to their own inexperience and a lack of required state licensing---barbers are licensed but not home inspectors. The difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is two weeks, but a bad home inspection is still there) and this reasoning drives their business practices, which actually hurt the consumer. The exterior inspection is the most critical part of a condo since there is such little direct control over it. Obviously the entire exterior cannot be part of an inspection, but a cursory and informal overview of the exterior maintenance and construction is always included in our inspections. Will it turn up all problems? No way, but it will sure give an idea of the risk potential. And at the end of the day that is what is important to the buyer. Condominium conversions Converting apartments to condos has been quite the money making trend lately. Problem is most potential homebuyers are not aware that since the building was not built new, it does not fall under the warranty requirements, third party progress inspections, and financial protections mandated under the State's comprehensive 2003 condo law (passed by the legislature in response to burned consumers and associations, the plethora of lawsuits, crappy construction, and lack of available insurance for developers). Typically the conversion developer will buy an apartment building, hire an engineer to go through and make repair recommendations both inside and out. There is no requirement to make these repairs, and believe it or not a good percentage of the recommendations are not actually performed. The municipal building department or county is also called in and requires upgrades to meet current code on important life safety equipment such as deck rails, smoke detectors, and so forth. Next the Public Offering Statement (POS) is developed. POS contains the original engineer's report, the municipal upgrades and permits, the developer's response and actions regarding the engineer's report, and all the financial legalities required to set the owner's association in motion. It is one LARGE book, but must be studied, particularly the part where the developer notes where they did or did not perform the recommended repairs. Verification of these repairs is the most important part of a conversion inspection actually. While the countertops may glisten, and the carpet and appliances are new, many seriously lame and leaking siding and decks can and do remain. | |
| Report Formats & Pricing | |
Along with advice on how to solve existing problems and preventive maintenance tips, the end product of an inspection is a written report, one of several types available. Why do we do different types when other inspection companies offer a one-size-fits-all? Every person, every building, and every situation is different:Customized Report (The Big Dog) |
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Some of the Things We Check The following isn't an exhaustive list, but illustrates just how many things are inspected during a typical job. |
| What Our Inspections Include | |
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| Probably Darrell's key instrument is the pinless moisture meter, a great tool for finding subsurface water problems, i.e. bathtub surrounds and floors and tile. ***Coming Soon*** New technology thermal cameras (infrared) are now available specifically configured for home inspectors. These cameras are not exactly X-ray vision, but they do allow the ability to spot unseen defects in walls, floors, roofs, and ceilings under the right conditions. Missing insulation, water damage, pests, and other defects can be spotted prior to their visual manifestation. Darrell also uses a digital carbon monoxide detector which is unusual in the industry-- few people check this very important item. He can do preliminary lead testing on-site using lead check swabs, and will gladly arrange for lab analysis of samples to check for existence of lead and asbestos. The bottom line is that Darrell will focus right in on any item showing unusual signs of wear, deterioration, etc. to make sure that the customer understands how to address and maintain these items, or better yet, how to avoid them altogether. | |
| How a Home Inspection Differs from Other Inspections | |
If you want to find out more about our inspections or pricing, feel free to call us for more details. |
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| Consulting Services | |
| As an added service to our customer who may wish something different than a regular building inspection, we offer consulting services by bid or at an hourly rate. Some prime examples are condominium homeowners associations with roof, siding or deck issues, or individual homeowners with drainage issues. A Word About E&O Insurance Many inspection companies like to tout the fact that they carry E&O insurance (errors and omissions). E&O is presented to the public as an insurance policy for their benefit in case the inspector had a bad day and forgot to notice that the roof was missing or some other horrible nightmare. I wouldn't have E&O insurance if you gave it to me. Say what?! The cold hard truth is that E&O insurance is bought by inspectors to protect their assets. It's not purchased out of the goodness of their hearts or for their customer's benefit. Get real. E&O benefitting the customer is just another nasty lie that this industry tells. Let's say your inspector screws up. Go ahead, I dare you, call the insurance company and ask them to give you $7500 for a new roof. Won't happen. This isn't like a fender bender in the parking lot. You'll be forced to sue. You may win in court or you may not. But you will invest at least 20 G and more than a year of your life getting there. The insured inspector is not allowed to settle with you, since his insurance company has now taken charge of the claim. Inspector E&O policies have about a $5000 yearly premium, and, to make the math easy, a $5000 deductible. So any claim will cost the inspector 10 grand after all is said and done. Plus he will have one supremely PO'ed client who will be bad-mouthing him up one side and down the other to anyone that will listen. Doesn't seem the best business policy now does it? Is there another way? Let's say this same inspector pocketed the 10 grand he would have spent on insurance and deductible and simply put it in the bank, never handing it to the insurance company. Now let's suppose this same customer calls up the uninsured inspector and says, "that roof you forgot to look at last week is missing". Rather than the inspector saying "call my insurance company and good luck Chuck", followed by the insurance carrier responding with, "sue us bitch", what if the inspector said...."Oh my gosh, I have royally screwed up. Please take this $7500 and my profound apologies". See the difference Inspector is $2500 richer (each year), customer is happy as a clam, and tells everyone what a standup guy he is. They call this a win-win. Is it a warranty? No, it's a business philosophy. So your next question is, Darrell have you ever paid anyone? Nope. Never had the need to. | |
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