Questions you should ask your prospective home inspector
Choosing the right home inspector is extremely important. The wrong choice could lead to disastrous results causing damage to the property, injuries or loss of life and/or a complete waste of time and money. Based on our experience in this nascent industry, here are our recommendations on what you should ask your prospective home inspector or home inspection company:
- While you may have heard or read about home inspection on internet, ask what is a home inspection all about? Home Inspection is a non-invasive/non-destructive testing of the quality of home, done by qualified personnel using certain tools/equipments and technology to bring objectivity into the findings
- Ask about the time it would take for the inspection? A typical comprehensive inspection should take about 3-4 hours depending on the size and layout of the house.
- Ask about the tools that the inspector would use? The value add of a formal home inspection is in the tools that an inspector would use in support of his observations. There is literally no point in an inspector performing only a visual inspection.
- Ask what is so great about an inspector in comparison to any personnel from construction industry? Obviously inspections need to be performed by qualified (internal qualification from InterNACHI for example) and trained inspectors otherwise you shouldn’t rely on their findings.
- Ask what prerequisites that a home inspector needs before he shows up for the inspection
- Ask if the home inspector anticipates any damages to the house during the inspection. Needless to say, you shouldn’t tolerate any damage caused during the inspection as by definition the home inspection is a non-invasive/non-destructive process of assessing the quality of home.
- Ask what safety precautions the home inspector would take during the inspection. You wouldn’t want to be liable for any accidents that happen during the inspection in your home.
- Ask what all areas would the home inspection cover. You want to make sure all of the basic categories like Electrical, dampness, flooring, safety etc are covered.
- Ask how comprehensive the report will be. The report should be in the right detail with pictures and annotations so that even a layman can understand the issues (whether or not being at the site during inspection)
- After the inspection, once the builder fixes the issues, will you be available to inspect again? Ideally the home inspector should be there as many times as you want to inspect, making sure that every visit should be an inspection and not a manpower based consultancy service
- Ask how long will it take for the report to be handed over to you. The sooner the better. 48 – 72 hours (outer limit) is a best in class promised turnaround time.
- Ask how easily you can access your report. Ideally the home inspection report is on the cloud so that you can access it anytime, anywhere, just like you check your emails
You should pay attention to the answers to the questions above. Do not compromise on the quality of the home inspector. Always make an informed and deliberate decision about which home inspector to hire.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Telegram
Email
Print
Reddit