What can my home inspector do for me?

Last week and again later this week, we have had the opportunity to do not your normal home inspection. First, last week.

We were called by a contractor to look at a house for code compliance. We are not code inspectors, we told him. He said to come by anyway. This was a home that has not been lived in, except by rodents and termites, for several years. The backyard was entirely overgrown, several walls were missing, and the kitchen and baths were devoid of fixtures. We asked him what he wanted us to do for him. His idea is he will be submitting a bid to the owner, who lives in California, to get the home to a sellable situation. He knows it will be a rather hefty quote and will be using our full report as a justification of sorts. Our report will be able to show the owner just how much work really needs to be done, from a disinterested third party. Our client is very happy he decided to hire us, even though he is not an owner or seller of this property.

The similar situation we are working with this week is an investor seeking to buy a house. He is using one of our newer tools, the Preliminary Property Review. Basically, this is an inspection just like any other inspection we do, except we don't have a report. We will look through the house as thoroughly as always, but then instead of a 38-page matrix report and computer generated narrative with color photos, we will deliver a 1-page report that only identifies the most significant issues. Being that our client is only planning on rehabing the house himself anyway, he doesn't need a full report, but does want to know if there are any really major issues he could have overlooked. I am sure he will be very happy with his purchase as well.

No matter what kind of client we may come across, our goal is to completely satisfy their needs to the best of our ability. The PPR is a great tool for someone to use before they put a contract on the house, or for anyone that wants an inspection, but needs to save money. Our full report can be used in any number of ways as well.

While I am hoping to grow my business, my purpose today is to inform consumers of the many different services any home inspector should offer, and different ways anyone can use a home inspection.