As most of us have seen on the HGTV real estate channel, the Holmes on Homes series has become quite popular. I can appreciate the way Holmes and his crew can go through a building's components and find out what the last contractor did wrong, than proceed to make substantial and attractive improvements to those areas of the home. Finding a reputable contractor does involve a lot of research. You need to locate the right company for you, that you can trust with your largest investment.
There's also another segment of the series called Holmes Inspections. Each one of these episodes lasts one hour and has depicted some gruesome home component defects that the home inspector had missed and the new homeowner was stuck with. The question arises as to whether this was just a poor home inspection or if the validity of a home inspection process may be another concern for a new home buyer to worry about.
During most real estate home inspections the normal procedure is to perform a non-evasive inspection that is limited by closed walls, ceilings and floor coverings; also storage. The home inspector should view the house from both the inside as well as the outside and look for abnormalities. The home inspector has a limited amount of time to inspect the whole house, but all house components need to be inspected.
Cutting into walls and dismantling components is never done during a visual home inspection. When Holmes finds huge problems during an episode, that were partially hidden, I think that the home inspector may have done a bad job and dis-service to the client/or home buyer. If an area of questionable concern arises, a home inspector should always call for further evaluation by a reputable contractor and not leave the matter hanging in limbo. The home inspector may have to exaggerate inspection details on behalf of their client. As when during an episode when water was spilling to close to the foundation, the inspector needed to report that and missed a very important finding. The contractor obviously covered the basment defects adjacent to the water spillage problem with drywall.
When Mike Holmes comes to review/or inspect a home that has problems, he has an idea where the problems are located in the home. Because closed walls hide so much, usually the next step would be to remove a wall section to be able to get a better understanding of the extent of the existing problem. When Holmes finds some evidence of a problem , the next step requires dismantling of the walls, floors and ceilings... contractor stuff.
Briefly, I think that when Holmes finds house problems that the "home inspector" had missed, it usually happens when the "dismantling wall phase" starts to happen. The visual home inspection perhaps was poorly done on some occasions, but that doesn't mean that All home inspections preformed by All licensed home inspectors are inadequate as compared to the Holmes Inspection. Hidden damage may always be present no matter how through the inspection was done. A fact of life.
I know and have actually seen what some contractors have done to hide problems when buying a house to flip in the Somerset County area. You would be surprised to discover how many defects drywall and layers of paint can cover up. When a contractor covers up defects it's very difficult to almost impossible to discover without removing walls.
Even though the industry standard home inspection may be limited in it's scope by visual details, it is a necessary and valid inspection that is needed to be in place if the business of real estate transaction will ever move forward. Most of the times these limited visual inspections do just fine. And there's alway the option of calling for further evaluation if an area was not accessible or if examining a component is beyond normal inspection standards of the company.
One thing that should be stressed is that if there has been major remodeling, you must check to see that all necessary installation permits have been taken out. This does includes both kitchen and bathroom remodeling, especially when there has been either new plumbing pipes and electric wiring installed. Also, whenever walls have been altered or moved this also requires a permit to be taken out from the municipality.
Always make sure that the proper permits are in place so that the town's code enforcement official can come by and inspect the work that has been done on your property. Most all of the homes that Holmes had inspected didn't have the proper permits issued before the work was done. A red flag.
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