Comparing home inspection reports

In searching for a home inspector for out-of-state family members buying a home, I ended up comparing dozens of home inspector web sites, trying to separate the great home inspectors from the hacks.  It wasn’t difficult to find qualified home inspectors, but finding someone who I thought was a great home inspector was much more difficult.   As I mentioned at the end of my blog about finding an out-of-state home inspector, it all came down to comparing sample home inspection reports.

Reading sample home inspection reports is the best way to compare home inspectors, short of actually attending the home inspection.

In my humble opinion, the best home inspection reports have several things in common, and these were the things that I looked for in a sample home inspection report while searching for an out-of-state inspector:

Photos - this is a no-brainer and doesn’t need much explanation.  Good home inspection reports have photos.  This is a basic requirement for a good home inspection report that most home inspectors include today.  In a recent survey of ASHI home inspectors with 4,500 responses, over 84% of ASHI home inspectors include photos in their reports.

Easy to read – I don’t want to have to look at a legend to figure out what the inspector is trying to say, and I especially wouldn’t want my family members trying to figure that stuff out.  Home inspection reports should be easy to understand and shouldn’t need someone with industry knowledge to interpret what the inspector is trying to say.

Customized – home inspection reports should contain three basic components when addressing an issue: what the issue is, why it’s an issue (if not obvious), and what should be done.

For example, if a water heater had a pressure relief valve that was plugged off on the end, a great home inspection report might say

“The pressure relief valve discharge tube has a cap attached to the end, which will prevent the valve from functioning; this could cause the water heater to explode or turn in to a missile if the water heater malfunctioned.  Have the cap removed.”

A weak inspection report might say

“Capped relief pipe needs repair”

Both of these descriptions address the defect, but the first description is obviously a far superior description, and lets the client know why this item needs repair.

Disclaimers kept to a minimum – I looked for inspection reports that were focused on helping my family members; not explaining away why they couldn’t.  Many home inspection reports are filled with CYA verbiage that is focused on explaining away why the home inspector couldn’t see this or why they couldn’t inspect that.  This isn’t helpful to the home buyer, and when there’s too much of it, it starts to sound ‘weaselly’.  I don’t want to read through a huge list of stuff that wasn’t inspected.  That list belongs in the contract or the standards of practice.  If the roof was covered with snow, say it was covered with snow and not inspected.  The end.

Realistic recommendations - This one is huge.  Many home inspection reports are filled with recommendations for further testing and inspections to the point where it gets absurd.  Mold testing?  Asbestos testing?  Lead testing?  Sewer scans?  Plumbing inspections?  Electrical inspections?  When I see recommendations for all these other inspections, I get the feeling that the home inspector is only concerned about not getting sued; they’re not nearly as concerned about providing a good service to my family members.

Confident reports – this point is a little harder to define, but it’s really what sets asides the rookies from the experienced home inspectors.  Anyone with the most basic understanding of a house can observe an abnormality, call attention to it, and recommend repair or a second opinion.  With knowledge and experience comes the confidence to say that something isn’t a problem.

Ownership  - This might be something that many home inspectors don’t even consider when they write reports, but I got turned off reading inspection reports where the inspector clearly didn’t take ownership of the comments and recommendations he or she was making.  For example, “It is recommended…” takes no ownership.  ”I recommend” does.

That makes up most of the stuff that I looked for in a sample home inspection report when choosing a home inspector for out-of-state family members.  In the end, I found a home inspector who had all of these qualities in a sample report, and I weeded out a ridiculous amount of qualified home inspectors who didn’t.

If you’re shopping for a home inspector, be sure to read a sample report.

RELATED POSTS:

My search for an out-of-state home inspector

How to decide on a home inspector

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minnesota Home Inspector

        

Top 20 Home Inspection Photos from 2011

I post a new home inspection photo on the Structure Tech Facebook page six days a week, and this year I decided to put together a blog post showing my favorite photos from 2011.   I hope you enjoy these half as much as I do.  As with all of my blog posts, click on any of these photos for a larger version.

Ice Dams – Remember ice dams?  They were nasty last winter.  I’m enjoying winter in Minnesota much more this year; what have we received so far, two inches of snow?

Ice Dam-age Control - This is the only photo we didn’t take (thanks DKW3).  This was someone’s solution to chronic water intrusion from ice dam leakage.

Hack Ice Dam Removal - We’ve said many times that pressure washers should never be used to remove ice dams, because they tear up shingles.

Hot Roof?  Cold Roof?  Not Sure.  - Attics are supposed to be treated as warm spaces or cold spaces.  Someone obviously didn’t understand the point.

Hockey Puck Fascia Repair - Hole in your fascia?  No problem!  Just use a bunch of caulk and a hockey puck to fix it.

Rotted Roof Decking - The roof decking was in horrible condition at this house, but that didn’t stop the roofers; they installed a new roof covering right over the top.  That black stuff is the ice & water shield.

Bad Shingle Repair – No explanation needed.

Bad Chimney Crown - We could tell this chimney crown needed repair just by looking at it from the ground, but we had no idea it would be this bad.  This chimney crown obviously needs to be completely replaced.

Chimney with Facade Falling Apart - Three sides of this chimney looked just fine from a distance.

One Angry Bird Away… - As I was typing up the insection report for this house, my wife saw this photo on the computer screen and said “Wow, that chimney looks like it’s about one angry bird away from collapse.”  Good call.

Downspout Combustion Air Intake - That downspout connecting to the return air duct fed to the exterior of the home and was being used as the combustion air intake.  It’s not conventional and it’s probably a little small, but hey, it works.

Central Air-ish - This was someone’s attempt at cooling a room where the AC unit wasn’t installed.

Creative Heat Register – Interesting solution.

Heat Register in Cabinet - While most people would have had to decide between a heat register and a cabinet here, this homeowner decided to have their cake and eat it too.  Can you guess what city this house was in?

Garbage Can Sump Basket - Sump baskets are reinforced on the sides to prevent them from collapsing.  Plastic refuse containers are not.

Mouse in Panel - Any unused openings in electric panels are supposed to be covered over, not only to contain any potential fire or sparking that could occur inside the panel, but also to prevent unwanted visitors from coming in.

Covered Outlet – No explanation needed.

Missing Fuses - Apparently someone was tired of replacing those pesky fuses, so they replaced the fuses with a couple short lengths of copper tubing.  Can you say fire hazard?

Mirror Tile on Kitchen Floor - This might be the most interesting tiled floor we’ve come across.

Useless Shower Fan - Someone went to a lot of effort to install this bath fan above the shower, but without a duct… what’s the point?  I can only scratch my head.

Water Behind Escutcheon - My personal favorite.  I noticed water leaking out from behind the escutcheon, which is that decorative metal trim ring around the pipe sticking out of wall.  I turned the water off, pulled the escutcheon away, got my camera ready, turned the water back on… click.

Ok, that was twenty-one photos.  Close enough.  If you enjoy these kinds of photos, be sure to click “Like” on our Facebook page.  Thanks!

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minnesota Home Inspector

        

My search for an out-of-state home inspector

I have out-of-state family who are in the process of buying a new home.  I told them I’d find a good home inspector in their area, assuming I would already know someone in their area from an online discussion group or from ActiveRain.  No such luck.  Oh well… the search begins.

At first, my search for a home inspector started out kind of fun, a little like searching for a house.  It was easy for me to weed out home inspectors, but I actually ended up weeding out way too many.  I was left with no one, for one reason or another.

Blah

I found several themes on home inspector web  sites.  The ‘basic’ web sites were all extremely similar – it was “Hire me because:”

• A home is probably the largest investment you will ever make.  Blah blah blah (and now, stop talking).  Why do so many home inspectors need to tell people this?  If someone is shopping for a home inspector, they’re probably already sold on the idea of a home inspection.  
• I’ll give you peace of mind.  I’d rather find someone who will give me the straight story, even if the information doesn’t give me peace of mind. 
• I abide by [insert association]‘s Standards of Practice.  So does everyone else.
• I’m licensed.  Gee, lets hope so if your state requires it.
• I’m independent.  You mean the real estate agent doesn’t pay you off to ignore defects?  I suppose that’s good…
• I charge less than my competition.  I assume there is a reason for this.

Turn-offs

I found many web sites that turned me off right away; these sites had common themes to them.

• Claims to be the best / most detailed / most comprehensive / most thorough / etc.  They’re making a claim that’s impossible to prove.  I don’t trust this person.
• As many colors and fonts jammed in to one page as possible.  This reminds me of a little girl who got in to her mom’s make-up bag.
• Claims that their home inspection association (ASHI, NACHI, NAHI, etc) is better than the other associations.  Badmouthing other associations or claiming superiority of their association doesn’t make them look better; it makes them look petty.
• Warnings about blind home inspectors.  I’ve never met a blind home inspector.  I feel as though I’m being talked down to when I hear warnings about unqualified home inspectors, and I’m afraid they’re going to talk down to my family members during the inspection.  Just tell me about yourself.

Turn-ons

The better web sites give more specific information about the home inspector.

• I have these certifications
• I’m a member of this association
• I walk on the roof to inspect it
• I crawl through crawl spaces to inspect them
• I’ve been in the business for a long time
• I’m thorough, detailed, patient… and many other adjectives.

After looking through enough web sites,  it becomes hard to compare all of that.  Also, none of this stuff tells me the person is a good home inspector; it just tells me they are qualified to be a good home inspector.

Online presence = bonus points

I didn’t exclude any home inspectors from my search just because they didn’t engage in social media, but I certainly gave them bonus points for doing so.  It helps me learn more about them.   Facebook, Twitter, Youtube… all that stuff helps me to learn more about the company.

Of course, I also gave bonus points to home inspectors with active blogs.  How could I not?

Online reviews were also nice to see.

…but it all boils down to the report.

For me, it all comes down to the home inspection report.  This is the single most important part of deciding on a home inspector for me, because it tells me more about the home inspector than anything else possibly could.  I started writing about what I look for in a home inspection report, but it started turning in to a whole new topic.  I’ll save that for another day.

Unfortunately, many of the inspectors that I decided were the most qualified didn’t even have sample inspection reports on their web site.   If I had found a home inspector with a good inspection report, I would have recommended them, but I couldn’t find one.  I got a few referrals from the ASHI online discussion forums, so I contacted the inspectors that were referred, asking for sample inspection reports.  You’d think I was asking for social security numbers.

One inspector made me promise not to share the report, even after he removed all of the identifying information, and another refused to let me view a sample report.   No joke.   The one who sent me a report with no questions asked actually had a very good report, and she’s the one I’ll end up recommending to my family.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minnesota Home Inspector