ALL AMERICAN
Home Inspection Service, Inc.
SHOULD THE BUYER ATTEND THE HOME INSPECTION?
Yes, yes and YES.
I always shake my head when someone will spend 30 years paying the mortgage and are not going attend their home inspection because they are too busy to learn about the 30 issues (typically between 30 and 100 items on EVERY HOME) that are listed on most inspections or learn how to turn off the hose bib, change the furnace filter,scope the main waste pipe or of purchasing a Sewer contract from the local utility (Artesian Water) for less than $20 per month only to spend $4,000 on the sewer line. After they move in the tree roots clog the pipe.
Believe your eyes, do a good job and do not back down.
The relationship between Home Inspectors and Realtors can get tricky; some parties will try and pressure an inspector to sway them one way or the other - No, No, No.
Again, it takes experience to be as honest as possible for EVERYONE, The Buyer, The Home and The Seller; in the end it keeps everyone out of trouble.
If you need a report slanted please call someone else, we inspect 500-700 homes per year and cannot afford to be dishonest on even 1% of them.
Believe me, sitting on the Home Inspector Board at a State level has been quite an eye opener.
95% of the realtors that recommend us ATTEND the inspection but some do not. In my opinion it is very important for them because they gain a wealth of knowledge about not only the home they are selling this time but the next time they are in the same development they will know where to look for their next client, also if they are physically there they can see that the roof is leaking so a slick contractor cannot convince them the roof is not leaking afterword’s (not raining), or the plumbing is not leaking (did they run the water for 1 hour?). Or that the light switch works fine and I’ll say did you tap the other 3 way switch, etc. or we cannot find that gas leak, did they used a gas sniffer.?People tend to believe their eyes and often times doubt things that they did not witness. That is why the buyer should attend the inspection and please arrive on time.
We have found over the years that the only thing we believe is our eyes. We had a boiler in a home and the “Boiler Mechanic” inspected it just prior to us arriving. I was tempted to take a shortcut and write that a boiler mechanic just inspected, But no, my conscience got the best of me and I did a cursory inspection on it, opened the view port and the refractory material inside had a chunk broken off and was lying in the bottom.
It was an older Robino built home and after just 15 minutes noticed that the 2 lower floors (zones) were not working, the TPR valve began dripping, once up to pressure it had 3 leaks and the expansion tank was full of water.
Turns out the Boiler mechanic was actually an HVAC mechanic qualified on Furnaces and heat pumps but not Boilers turns out he just didn’t want to disappoint the realtor that referred him.