10 Questions to Ask When
Evaluating a
Home Inspection Company
Most people, understandably, start interviewing home
inspectors by asking "How much do you charge?" While it's important to
know this information, it's not the most important, and certainly not the
only question you should ask in order to make an informed decision in
choosing your Home Inspector. Keep in mind that home inspections are not a
commodity. It's not like going into the grocery store and buying a dozen
Grade A - Large eggs or a pack of #2 pencils, where price is the primary
differentiator between one supplier and another.
When you hire a Home Inspector, you are hiring a
consultant to work on your behalf. Experience, qualifications,
communication and interpersonal skills vary widely from inspector to
inspector. Some inspectors specialize in volume and low price and may
perform up to three or more cursory inspections in a day, then hand their
clients a hand written checklist at the end. At the other end of the
spectrum are inspectors who have a high level of expertise, are ruthlessly
thorough and may spend many hours performing a single inspection and
documenting their findings. These inspector may never do more than one
inspection per day. Obviously, you would expect the cost, and value, of
inspections performed by the people at these opposite ends of the spectrum
to be quite different.
As a consumer, you deserve to know what kind of
inspection you will be receiving so that you can balance the cost of the
inspection with your other priorities. We have prepared the following 10
questions that we feel you should ask anyone that you are considering
hiring as an inspector. In the course of your discussion. In addition to
the direct responses you will probably want to assess intangibles also
(e.g., Are you comfortable with their communication style? Are they really
listening for and addressing any concerns you may have? Have they
established a rapport with you, etc.).
1. Besides your license, what credentials
and certifications do you have —
Look or evidence at the inspector considers him/herself a
professional and actively pursues greater knowledge. Code certification
from the International Code Council is an excellent indicator and makes
your inspector's comments more credible with builders and other
professionals.
2. Do you perform home inspections full
time or part time? How many paid inspections have you performed? —
Home inspection requires a very broad knowledge, it's difficult
for an inspector to stay on top of their game doing it part time.
3.
How many inspections do you perform in a day an how long do you expect to
be present at the house you are inspecting for me? How long after the
inspection should I expect receive my report?—
If an inspector performs three or more inspections a day, don't
expect them to hang around and answer many questions for you. If you are
the inspector's only client that day, you can usually expect that they can
spend the time necessary to properly inspect a complex house, answer
questions and explain their findings in detail. A report handed to you at
the end of the inspection, simply isn't going to have much detail. A
thorough, detailed report can easily take two to three hours to prepare.
4.
Do you give or receive payments or other consideration for referrals? —
Avoid situations where inspectors give or receive kickbacks from
agents, service companies, specialty inspectors, etc. Ideally, the only
money changing hands is directly from you to the inspector and any other
professionals working on your behalf so that you are not paying loaded
fees and there is no confusion as to whom the client is.
5.
May I see a copy of your home inspection service agreement? —
If they balk or don't have one, walk away. When you review it, you
should expect to see some limitation of liability in the agreement.
However, you should look for an agreement that is fairly balanced and
include a satisfaction guarantee.
6.
Would you send me a copy of an actual inspection report for a house
similar to mine? —
Don't consider any inspection company that won't send you an
actual sample inspection report. When you get the report, look at it in
detail. The inspection report is a tangible representation of the level of
detail and thoroughness of the inspection. Many inspectors use
commercially available reporting software. Often times these produce
impressive looking reports, but don't really contain much useful
information about the actual house that was inspected. When looking
through the sample report, make sure tat it contains meaningful
information about the actual property that as inspected vs. those that are
mostly generic boilerplate type information.
7.
Do you intend to walk on the roof? Under what circumstances do you not
walk on the rooftop during an inspection? —
Some inspector's almost never walk on rooftops, while other do
whenever it's safe to do so. No inspector can see the same level of detail
when looking at a roof through binoculars that they can by walking the
roof surface.
8.
Do you carry General Liability Insurance? Errors an Omissions? —
If not, find out why.
9.
Have you ever had a complaint filed against you or been disciplined by the
Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC), Better Business Bureau (BBB) or other
consumer agency? If so, what was the outcome? —
Check on their answer by looking at the Texas Real Estate
Commission website. Their license database is searchable and any
disciplinary actions will be shown. While you're there, check on the
agents/brokers too. Here's the query for my license:
TREC License Lookup.
10.
How much will my inspection cost? What services are included in the basic
fee and what services cost extra? —
Now that you have the information needed to compare companies,
it's time to bring the cost component into the equation.
Good hunting to you.
