Are home inspections worth the money?

By Jon Rudolph

Home Inspector with Inspections By Referral ASHI Certified #211581

November 28, 2009 05:26 AM

This question was posted on www.Trulia.com by a real estate agent.

There were many answers, of course say "yes!" with elaboration of why. I thought this relatively obvious question and answer actually deserved a more detailed and specific answer.

A home Inspector's Answer to the question Are Home Inspections Worth the Money?

The biggest caveat to answering your question being the qualifications and ability of the home inspector. It's in your best interest to find and select a qualified home inspector your are comfortable with choosing based on comparable qualifying criteria. Some states have minimal standards and requirements for home inspectors and some do not. Even with state requirements, you still need to qualify your choice in home inspectors to best ensure you are getting your money's worth. Also, your Realtor may have some or one home inspector referral, it's still in your best interest to screen and qualify that home inspector. Don't assume the nicest Realtor is going to refer the best qualified inspector.

Consider this; you are relying on the professional opinion, the observation skills, technical knowledge and communication skills of someone you may interact with for only a few hours at most, in order to make an informed and confident purchase decision on a home. Are you willing to compromise your time to qualify and fee to hire a reliable and qualified home inspector professional?

Here's are two scary, yet very real considerations:

•· For states that don't have home inspector requirements, such as Colorado, your home inspector could have NO qualifications, have served in prison for federal offense and received a Certified Home Inspector credential from the internet. And you could be hiring that person to enter another person's home unattended. Then relying on their "professional opinion" to make a home purchase decision.

•· General Liability insurance. If your inspector doesn't carry it or an adequate coverage, YOU are generally liable since you are hiring the inspector to go on someone else's property. What if something is stolen or damaged? Are you prepare to carry the liability because the home inspector you hired isn't?

Fortunately, there are a few simple questions you can ask to help ensure you are getting one of the many well qualified and reputable professional home inspectors.

Questions To Ask When Choosing A Qualified Home Inspector:

•1. Do they carry general liability and errors & omission (E&O) insurance?

•2. What, if any, standard of practice do they base their inspections (e.g., American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI)?

•3. What kind of certification, if any? ASHI Certified inspectors is the only third-party accredited certification. Some are simple online internet or correspondence courses.

•4. What source & level of training, experience & education do they have?

•5. How much time do they typically spend on an inspection?

•6. What additional inspection techniques and tools do they use?

•7. Are they impartial (e.g., independent of anyone with a financial interest in the results except the client)? Did they pay or compensate some way for the referral?

•8. How do they present results? Are clients encouraged to attend the inspection?

•9. What do their clients say? Do they guarantee client satisfaction?

•10. How much is the fee and what is it based on? Is it competitive for the services and qualifications provided?

•11. How do their qualifications compare to the price?

I hope this helps. Also see my blog (http://id-inspections.blogspot.com/) that goes into some more detail on Choosing A Qualified Homes Inspector and or our web site (http://www.id-inspections.com/Home) for Downloadable a Worksheet to compare home inspectors with this qualifying criteria

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Chris Brunner

GreatFX Printing - Springfield, MO

GreatFX Printing

I think it is worth it if they are competent and insured. And... good thing I don't live in Colorado. The idea of an unlicensed inspector entering a home alone... no way.

Nov 28, 2009 05:29 AM

Gita Bantwal

RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA

REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

This is a good post. It is scary thinking of the scenarios you mentioned.

Nov 28, 2009 05:29 AM

Chris Smith

Re/Max Chay Realty Inc., Brokerage - New Tecumseth, ON

South Simcoe, Caledon, King, Orangeville Real Esta

This is a great post. There are no standards in Ontario at this time either... you raise many salient points.

Thanx John

Nov 28, 2009 05:31 AM

Delete Acct Desert Communities

Palm Desert, CA

Jon, excellent post and interesting questions you raise regarding home inspections and who is qualified to perform them.

Nov 28, 2009 05:48 AM

Barbara Calwhite

Keller Williams Realty of Southwest Missouri - Joplin, MO

417-438-7387 Specializing in Relocation

Barbara Calwhite I prefer to have separate inspectors for the electrical, plumbing, heat and air and roofing. If there is a question about any of the above, the inspectors in our area always state in their inspection to have whatever problem area inspected by a qualified electrician, heat and air person, etc.

When that happens, the buyer has paid for two inspections. Why not get the qualified electrician, plumber, etc. in the first place??

This was brought home to me recently when the gas was turned and the gas company said the furnace and burners looked to be in good shape. My buyer had decided in lieu of a home inspection to have a licensed heat and air company do the inspection for a mere $75.00. As it turned out, the heat exchanger was cracked in 4 places. This could have started a fire or worse yet, caused a death.

Usually the cost of each of the 4 above mentioned professionals each doing an inspection do not add up to as much as a home inspection. What a DEAL!!

Nov 28, 2009 06:58 AM

Charles Buell

Charles Buell Inspections Inc. - Seattle, WA

Seattle Home Inspector

Barbara, the best reason I can think of to NOT have one of these professions do the initial inspection is the possible conflict of interest----the vast majority of issues related to all of these components can be adequately assessed by a knowledgeable home inspector----if all the inspector is doing is deferring these things to licensed trades they are not doing their job in my opinion----find a better home inspector. Heat exchangers represents a complicated area for both home inspectors and HVAC technicians because of the inability to access these components-----some furnaces are even installed in such a way that dismantling them for proper evaluation is almost impossible. Deferring them to the HVAC tech is not going to be an improvement in that scenario. A good visual evaluation of the unit will point a trained home inspector in the right direction as to what kind of further evaluation is necessary---if any.

Nov 28, 2009 09:53 AM

Mike (Inspector Mike) Parks

Inspector Mike - Circleville, OH

Inspector Mike

Jon

It is that way here in Ohio also.

You forgot about the lack of workers compensation. This is VERY important, ask your attorney.

There are very few competent HI's here in the central Ohio area.

Barbara

I agree. Why waste your clients money. Unless you have a super quailfied HI.

Nov 28, 2009 12:09 PM

Jon Rudolph

Inspections By Referral - Loveland, CO

ACI

Barbara,

Charles counter point is one of the reasons the home inspection industry evolved. It used to be that someone would hire a specific trades person as they thought they needed it.

There are trade-offs between a professional Home Inspector and specialized tradesperson:

•1) COST: although you said it was less, generally you would have to have a 1- structural engineer, 2 -roofer, 3 -general contractor, 4 - electrician, 5-plumber, 6-HVAC technician, 7-siding contractor, 8-window & door installer,9-appliance installer, 10-stair installer, etc. In most cases to have a home's systems inspected as would be done by a professional home inspector would cost $1,000 or more compared to an average home inspector of ~$350.

•2) TECHNICAL LEVEL OF SERVICE: A Tradesperson is more specialized versus a home inspector and an expectation would be that they cover more and have a greater depth of knowledge than a home inspector. Generally, this is the case. However, most of the time a tradesperson won't be doing much more in a inspection than the home inspector does. Also, a professional home inspector is trained to make observations with regard to safety and function. A tradesperson is trained on installation and repair. Fro example, just because a system or component is working or installed "the way it's always been done" doesn't make it correct or with less risk of failure than it should be.

•3) CONFLICT OF INTEREST: As Charles pointed out, the conflict of interest can be a huge factor. Bias will always be there, regardless of the purest intentions, when a tradesperson does an inspection.

Also, I completely agree with Charles, if the home inspector's routinely recommend further evaluation by qualified technician/contractor then I would question if they have the knowledge and expertise to be a professional home inspector. They clearly aren't providing much value in those cases. The need does come up, but usually it's clearly warranted to a single trade and mostly to provide a needed invasive inspection to obtain a more specific conclusion or diagnosis and obtain corrective options and bids.

This was a great discussion point. I've hear other Realtors express their frustration of similar scenarios.

Nov 29, 2009 03:29 AM

Chris Coley

North American Title Company - Fort Collins, CO

North American Title Company

Jon,

Great post and important information that every home buyer should have!

Dec 01, 2009 03:36 AM