Just Bought my first house!!!
I am getting it inspected this Saturday, what should I expect? How can I tell if he is being thorough or doing a good job? What are some good questions to ask? I don’t know much about house repair besides what I have been learning recently so any information would be welcome.
Fyi, its a 100 year old house in the heart of St. Paul Mn.
Thanks!!!
I have a dim view of inspectors. So…I wouldn’t hire one.
If I did… I’d ask:
How may roofs? How old is the newest one?
Size of electric service? How old? Knob and tube?
Age of water heater?
Age of HVAC system?
Evidence of termites or other infestations?
Integrity of foundation?
Second the knob and tube thing, and a few other things that I wish I had known about my house:
1 Were the previous people who worked on the house meth addicts?
2 Is the plumbing held togeather with duck tape?
3 are there live outlets behind the driywall?
4 are the entrances to the attick drywalled over?
5 What kind of people were these idiots and why cant I kill them?
6 are all the outside walls still attached to the beams?
7 how competent is the local arson investigator?
I bought a house earlier this year, and hired a home inspector. The whole thing took about 4 hours, I think. He was very thorough. Went up on the roof, into the attic, all around the outside, checked every outlet, light switch, faucet, all appliances remaining with the house, heating/cooling, electric, vents, smoke alarms, doors, doorknobs, garage doors, windows, blinds, toilets, ceiling, carpet…you name it, he looked at it and took pictures of it. Explained what he was doing as he did it, answered any questions, etc.
After we finished, he gave me his initial impressions, including several items that needed repair. A couple days later, he emailed me his formal report, which turned out to be about 30 pages, divided into sections, with pictures and notes of his findings and recommendations.
I then had my agent fax a copy of the report to the seller’s agent, and required the seller to fix everything listed as major issues in the report. The sale was contingent on a satisfactory (to me) home inspection, so they agreed to fix everything.
The inspection cost me about $150-$200 or so. I consider it money well spent. I figure that bought me at least 2-3 times the cost of the inspection in repair work done at no charge to me
I’m glad it worked out, and I am not saying that it wasn’t money well spent.
However…let me offer you some perspective…
Many home inspectors have some knowledge of home construction. They may be extremely knowledgeable about a given trade; and maybe a couple different trades. That is due, in part, because many come from within the skilled trades.
I’ve seen those 30 page reports too. Many are boiler plate software programs that allow him to drag and paste photos, and record model numbers/ serial numbers etc.
I have been hired by many sellers who were forced to make corrections by home inspectors. With one exception (and I would love to know if they brought in an HVAC technician because the inspection was outstanding) the corrections have been cosmetic: missing insulation of A/C lines, loose flex, the wrong size fuses in the A/C unit outside.
You get the picture.
I’ve also been contacted by many upset buyers when they’re A/C system doesn’t work 4 months after moving in.
As a point of reference, a thorough inspection of a gas fired furnace, complete with a comprehensive combustion analysis, including advanced adjustments, analysis of the A/C, refrigeration and mechanical systems would take me 2.5-3 hours. And your guy did the whole house in 4 hours.
Once again… I’m not saying it’s wasted money. But IME 99% of home inspections are from 30,000 feet; cosmetic things (many of them obvious) that----while need to be done-----give the new buyer a false sense of security.
There probably isn’t 1 in 1000 home inspectors that can do what I can do—and I’m not special. I’m simply an expert in my trade.
If you hired me you’d get a good* inspection of the HVAC/Plumbing and electrical systems (my trades) and a decent ** inspection of the roofing, structural, pest etc systems.
But I guarantee it would be in a glossy folder with jpegs. YMMV.
In 20 years in the building trades I’ve probably met 3 people who I considered to be knowledgeable in all trades. And they couldn’t do a full house in 4 hours.
*“Good” only because the prices home inspectors get wouldn’t allow me the time to do an outstanding job.
** Decent because I have some knowledge of homes and buildings. Hiring me would produce better results than hiring your accountant or butcher. But the average home inspector isn’t marketing himself as being smarter than your butcher. He’s representing himself as an expert.
I’ve had half-a-dozen home inspections in five different jurisdictions. I am on the fence about whether I will hire a home inspector next time. In my opinion, Home Inspectors (HIs) spend way too much time telling you if the faucets work and the windows open smoothly, all of which are cheap and easy repairs, and not nearly enough time on fundamentals which are hard & expensive to fix: structure, electrical & plumbing.
I hired an inspector who was also an engineer to look a a 100+ year old house, and he looked at the beams and said “you need to get an engineer in here.”:dubious:
On the plus side, I had a HI sniff twice in an old closet, figure out that there used to be an oil leak where the tank was, and saved me from buying a superfund site. 
I was the inspectee in a house where the HI saw found one ungrounded outlet, told the buyer the house had knob & tube and scared the buyer off, costing me about $50k (lost contract & time back on the market; this was 2008).
I wish I could tell an inspector to spend four hours checking these three items:
1. Plumbing: water comes in without problems, drains without problems, and there are not more than one or two bathtubs which drain directly onto the basement floor.
2. Electrical: Is there any knob & tube? Take apart a few fixtures on "middle" floors (hard to re-run wires to). Is EVERY plug grounded?
3. Are the horizontal beams sitting on vertical beams with more than 3/8"s overlap? Does the house have any foundation at all or is it just cement block sitting on sand? Was that brick wall made with that curve in it or has something sagged?
…and let me worry about the upstairs bedroom windows.
I agree that is poor customer service, but as a mechanical engineer, I can tell you that being an engineer does not make an expert in every field of engineering… we are generally pretty specialized.
I agree with everything else you said. I was quite frustrated with the last home inspector that I hired, because, like you said, he spent far too much time telling me about the stairs without a handrail, windows with missing locks, etc, than telling me the plumbing was not vented properly, was corroded, and not supported properly (this lead to much grief, until I eventually replaced all the plumbing).
Next time I hire an inspector, i am going to ask for some sample reports beforehand… don’t know if I’ll get them, but I’m going to try.
To the OP… If it’s a 100 yr old house, you can tell if the inspector is doing his job, because he’ll have a list about as long as a roll of toilet paper. :smack: I am kidding (kind of)… I love the character of older houses, and hope the best for you.
True, and IME most home inspectors who claim to be an engineer are not an actual PE.
There are a few things I wish I’d known about before buying. For one thing, if someone is taking a shower, and someone else flushes a toilet downstairs, will the cold water shut off so the person in the shower gets scalded? If they turn on hot water at the kitchen sink, will the person in the shower get a sudden burst of cold?
This was not covered by my home inspector, although he did check something about the water pressure in all the bathrooms.
I actually have the whole spreadsheet somewhere of things he checked for. Lots of stuff, it took all day. I was there for about two hours asking him questions.
There were still some issues.
You’re better off just hiring actual master tradesmen in each area.
You bought a house and are getting it inspected after the purchase? Big mistake. Why didn’t you get it before, so you knew what you were getting into and could possibly have the seller fix it?
A competent inspector knows what to look for. Let him do his job.
I was kinda assuming “Bought” meant “Am under contract to buy.”
There’s a big difference between those two. I guess we’ll have to ask the OP.
The big things to ask will generally be covered if you have a reputable inspector. We have sold several homes and have never had problems. I had one inspector that did not find a problem. I went back to him and he fixed it free of charge. He really ranks high on my list.