Home Inspectors

[ktknievel]

My husband and I are in the process of buying our first house (holy crap). Our offer was accepted this afternoon (OMG) and we're onto our next step of finding an inspector. Our realtor did give us a list along with her preference of companies, but as much as I like her, I need more opinions. This IS our potential home we're speaking of

Comments

[reeeeeeeeflex]

not sure I agree with this. I've used two house inspectors in my life. The first one did an adequate job, delivered a report that was maybe a few pages in length and talked about the various problems with the house as related to the purchase. The second one went above and beyond and delivered what was essentially a small book that delved not only on the problems noted above, but also gave engineering background on the why's and how's of the problems, how to deal with them, the various options for dealing with them, what kinds of problems might arise in the future, and so forth. It was much more thorough and useful than the first. Gave me a little history, on knob and tube (? is that it?) wiring, commented on the architecture of the house and why they built it the way it is, gave various solutions to solving a roofing problem and why some of them were better ideas than others, etc. etc.

And: the more thorough a job the inspector does, the more potential problems that are uncovered, the more points of negotiation you have for arguing the purchase price of the home down.

For reference, that second inspector--who I recommend--was Charles Sala. csala at verizon dot net

[nkdlife]

An assumption, Many houses have problems others simply do not, so why inspectors go over in details depending on situation. The local real state agencies always recommend top of the list. I have used several by price, they all have done an adecuate job.
do you work for this one?.

[reeeeeeeeflex]

Call Sala up and ask if he has any assistants working for him; that will give you your answer. To my knowledge he has none.

[alfiechat]

Yeah, he was recommended to us by our realtor as well.

[ktknievel]

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm definitely not going to choose by price, I have to disagree with the other commenter and agree with you. The house we're buying was inspected in April by someone who's deal fell through, I was given a copy of that inspection and just by reading it I know that I would never use that company for inspection on this house again.

You gave my opinions exactly on the more thorough the job, the better. And as a renter for 12 years, I definitely can't agree with the persons opinion that everything is well regulated.

Thanks for the Charles Sala recommendation!