Choosing a Qualified home inspector

So this blog might ruffle some feathers but it’s intent is to educate home buyers, home sellers and realtors about the importance of hiring qualified inspectors. I often go behind these inspectors that I call “beer money” inspectors. Inspectors that do cheap inspections and spend very little time on site, often less than 2 hours. A real inspection should take a minimum of 2 1\2 to 3 hours depending on the home. I’m often at most homes for at least 3 hours. The last time I ran into this situation was about two weeks ago and it was nothing short of an embarrassment for the other inspector and for myself honestly. Now this inspector works for what I call a Walmart inspection company, I won’t name any names but it’s one of these big multi inspection firms.

Here’s the story the buyers contacted me because the seller had a previous inspection done by the said company. She wasn’t satisfied with the other report and with good reason. The other report was a total of 25 pages, and this was for a 70 year old home. Just to put this in prospective my report was 72 pages!!! This other inspector did not find 1\10th of the issues, these types of inspections and inspectors, are bad not only for the home inspection profession but for buyers and sellers of real estate as well. This can also reflect badly on the Realtor and home seller should someone want to go after the said inspector or inspection company for missed items.

Often times especially when a house is being listed\sold a non qualified and not good inspector\company is used because the Realtor knows that they will receive a “soft” report. This is very unethical as the main purpose of a home inspection is to find and identify material defects and safety hazards. Qualified and ethical inspectors like myself treat every house\property the same way regardless of who we are working for.

Keep in mind that a good inspection protects everyone from future liability. So do yourself a favor and do your own research before hiring a home inspector. So the moral of the story is hire a qualified and reputable company like North Bay Inspection !!!!