Was Your Last Home Inspector Blind?

Learn Seven Things You Must Know To Avoid Hiring The Wrong Home Inspector

(1) Make Sure Your Home Inspector Is Experienced:
You don’t want the biggest investment of your life to be left in the hands of an inexperienced home inspector. The safety of you and your family is your first concern. An inexperienced home inspector could miss significant health and safety hazards that could cost a life.

Your inspector should be a full-time inspector, not a weekend warrior.

It takes a full-time inspector at least 100 inspections to develop the eyes, ears, and nose for hunting down problems. Part-time home inspectors simply don’t have the time in the field to develop that radar. Be sure to ask how many inspections the inspector conducts annually and how many years he/she has been doing them.

A quality full-time home inspector conducts between 300 and 500 inspections annually – blind inspectors conduct 50 to 100 inspections annually.

Conducting 200-400 inspections each year, requires extensive referrals, by prior clients, lenders, real estate agents, and others — so there is a much greater chance the inspector is not blind!

(2) Education & Training:
Being a contractor is very different from being a Professional Home Inspector. Home inspectors are responsible for evaluating all of the systems and components of the home — not just one aspect such as the brick or the framing. To be able to provide a competent evaluation of all of these elements takes formal education and training.

Did the inspector attend one of the top home inspection schools, or did he complete a correspondence course, or have his brother-in-law Bubba show him how to inspect?

Comprehensive, continuing education and training are a must!

(3) Certifications:
While certifications are certainly important, it’s the combination of Experience, Education, and Training that make the difference in the competency of your next home inspector. Certifications let the world know that the inspector can pass a test, not that he can inspect a home properly. We all know people who are certified for one thing or another that we wouldn’t hire under any circumstances.

There is simply no substitute for experience and proper training.

(4) Advanced Technology:
Buying a home is an extraordinary investment. So why would you want merely an ordinary inspection?

There is no reason to wonder if you’re getting the best inspection if the inspector is using cutting-edge technologies and the proper tools — such as Laser Thermometer, Hand-Held Computer, Moisture Meter, Outlet Testers, etc

– Newer technology such as these will uncover “hidden” signs of damage and potential problems that might otherwise go undetected in an “ordinary” inspection.

(5) The Inspection Report:
The top home inspectors in today’s business don’t produce handwritten reports. A professional inspector will provide at least a 30+ page narrative report, and not some little 10-15 pages that you can’t read because he writes like your doctor.

You should want the report to be written in plain English, not some “Techno Jargon”- that only the home inspector can understand.

The report should not contain repair cost estimates. Inspectors should NEVER make repairs or offer to make repairs at a later date.

An inspector that makes repairs should always be avoided due to the conflict of interest inherent in that situation. All national home inspection associations forbid this lack of integrity and objectivity.

Ask for a sample of an inspection report so you’ll know what you can expect for your time and money. After all, you are the client!

(6) The Company That Offers The Cheapest Price Is NOT The Company You Should Hire:
The company that offers the cheapest price is generally showing you a couple of things; 1) they are new or part-time and 2) they really do not know their costs (they will not be in business very long).

If you want a thorough Home Inspection of, what most likely will be, the largest purchase of your life, you will want an experienced professional Home Inspection Company on your side. Hiring a Home Inspection Company with experience that understands that they work for you and no one else is critical. Making sure that you, the buyer, understand the condition of your new property is our first priority.

* Inspectors that charge less, know less, do less, and therefore inspect less. They typically do not carry the technology and tools that are necessary to complete a thorough inspection.

* Bentley Home Inspections always provides an on-site review of our findings with you and makes sure that you understand all aspects of the property. The final report, which includes photos, is emailed to you in a PDF file the same day.

(7) Ask To See What Other Home Buyers Have Said About The Inspector:
Bentley Home Inspections  Inspectors ask their clients to complete comment cards upon completion of the inspection. Professional Inspectors want to know what they are doing right, as well as what might need improvement because you can’t improve what you don’t measure. If the inspector can’t or won’t provide client referrals, he might be blind in more ways than one!

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