One area of the home that often does not get inspected is the underside of soffits that are close to the ground.  Sometimes, even on hands and knees, it can be difficult to see under these overhangs.  The inspector should be looking under these overhangs because often the soffit is missing, poorly attached or otherwise damaged.  You can bet that if it is difficult to "see" under there, it is going to be even more difficult to install proper soffit materials.

     These overhangs are usually created when parts of the home are cantilevered past the foundation to create more space----and changes to the foundation might not be cost effective.  Such areas include extensions for:  bay windows, gas fireplaces, bathrooms etc.  This first picture shows an extension for a gas fireplace.

     You can see where the soffit material is hanging down.

     This was a point of entry for critters into the crawl space; and, water from the roof above was dumping on the ground and splashing up into the opening making the sill plate and insulation wet. 

     They make a nifty little tool called a "Palm-Nailer" that works great in small areas like this.  Perhaps this builder hadn't heard of them.

Charles Buell 

     PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed) all  pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.