In searching for a home inspector for out-of-state family members buying a home, I ended up comparing dozens of home inspector web sites, trying to separate the great home inspectors from the hacks.  It wasn’t difficult to find qualified home inspectors, but finding someone who I thought was a great home inspector was much more difficult.   As I mentioned at the end of my blog about finding an out-of-state home inspector, it all came down to comparing sample home inspection reports.

Reading sample home inspection reports is the best way to compare home inspectors, short of actually attending the home inspection.

In my humble opinion, the best home inspection reports have several things in common, and these were the things that I looked for in a sample home inspection report while searching for an out-of-state inspector:

Photos - this is a no-brainer and doesn’t need much explanation.  Good home inspection reports have photos.  This is a basic requirement for a good home inspection report that most home inspectors include today.  In a recent survey of ASHI home inspectors with 4,500 responses, over 84% of ASHI home inspectors include photos in their reports.

Easy to read – I don’t want to have to look at a legend to figure out what the inspector is trying to say, and I especially wouldn’t want my family members trying to figure that stuff out.  Home inspection reports should be easy to understand and shouldn’t need someone with industry knowledge to interpret what the inspector is trying to say.

Customized – home inspection reports should contain three basic components when addressing an issue: what the issue is, why it’s an issue (if not obvious), and what should be done.

For example, if a water heater had a pressure relief valve that was plugged off on the end, a great home inspection report might say

“The pressure relief valve discharge tube has a cap attached to the end, which will prevent the valve from functioning; this could cause the water heater to explode or turn in to a missile if the water heater malfunctioned.  Have the cap removed.”

A weak inspection report might say

“Capped relief pipe needs repair”

Both of these descriptions address the defect, but the first description is obviously a far superior description, and lets the client know why this item needs repair.

Disclaimers kept to a minimum – I looked for inspection reports that were focused on helping my family members; not explaining away why they couldn’t.  Many home inspection reports are filled with CYA verbiage that is focused on explaining away why the home inspector couldn’t see this or why they couldn’t inspect that.  This isn’t helpful to the home buyer, and when there’s too much of it, it starts to sound ‘weaselly’.  I don’t want to read through a huge list of stuff that wasn’t  inspected.  That list belongs in the contract or the standards of practice.  If the roof was covered with snow, say it was covered with snow and not inspected.  The end.

Realistic recommendations - This one is huge.  Many home inspection reports are filled with recommendations for further testing and inspections to the point where it gets absurd.  Mold testing?  Asbestos testing?  Lead testing?  Sewer scans?  Plumbing inspections?  Electrical inspections?  When I see recommendations for all these other inspections, I get the feeling that the home inspector is only concerned about not getting sued; they’re not nearly as concerned about providing a good service to my family members.

Confident reports – this point is a little harder to define, but it’s really what sets asides the rookies from the experienced home inspectors.  Anyone with the most basic understanding of a house can observe an abnormality, call attention to it, and recommend repair or a second opinion.  With knowledge and experience comes the confidence to say that something isn’t a problem.

Ownership  - This might be something that many home inspectors don’t even consider when they write reports, but I got turned off reading inspection reports where the inspector clearly didn’t take ownership of the comments and recommendations he or she was making.  For example, “It is recommended…” takes no ownership.  ”I recommend” does.

That makes up most of the stuff that I looked for in a sample home inspection report when choosing a home inspector for out-of-state family members.  In the end, I found a home inspector who had all of these qualities in a sample report, and I weeded out a ridiculous amount of qualified home inspectors who didn’t.

If you’re shopping for a home inspector, be sure to read a sample report.

RELATED POSTS:

My search for an out-of-state home inspector

How to decide on a home inspector

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minnesota Home Inspector

Would you call a retail store and ask “How much do you charge for a TV?”  Probably not.  You’d have to do research and decide what you want to buy before asking for prices.

One of the toughest calls that I get as a home inspector is “What do you charge for a home inspection?”

Home buyers ask me this because they’re trying to find the inspector that offers the best deal.  When buyers are only concerned with price, they have already made an assumption that all home inspectors offer the same thing, and they assume they’re comparing apples to apples Sony Bravia 32″ LCD HDTVs to Sony Bravia 32″ LCD HDTVs.  This just isn’t true.

Here are a few key things to research before deciding on a home inspector, and to help make sure you’re making a fair comparison when it comes down to price.  This is all information that home inspectors typically list on their web site (yes, I’m assuming they have a web site).

• Find out how long they’ve been in business for.
• Read client testimonials.  Are they from clients or real estate agents?  Do they have testimonials from three delighted clients, or thirty?
• Read about their qualifications and experience.  Look out for clever wording like “10 years of industry experience.”  This doesn’t equate to 10 years of “Home Inspection” experience.
• Most importantly, view a sample inspection report.  If there isn’t one available or you need to send the inspector an email to request one, it’s probably for good reason.  Home Inspectors like me that are proud of their reports practically want to push the report in to your lap.  See, look, I’m doing it right now.

When reviewing a sample report, there is much more to look for than just photos and illustrations.  Watch out for useless report writing that is designed to cover the home inspectors butt, not yours.  A bad report would contain a lot of phrases like “This was observed, recommend further evaluation and correction by a licensed blah blah blah”.  When I first started inspecting, I was told by a professional home inspection instructor that this was the best way to write a report.  As I’ve written more and more reports over the years, I’ve come to realize that home inspection schools teach this style only to protect the inspector.  This doesn’t provide a service for the client.

If you want an example of a good looking report that was poorly written, just Google “home inspection report” and click on the first sample that comes up.  You’ll find more than a DOZEN recommendations for additional inspections.  Is the buyer really supposed to follow this advice?  That’s ridiculous.

When picking out a home inspector, spend some time researching inspectors, even if you receive three different names of inspectors from your real estate agent.  Many agents give out three names because they don’t want to assume liability if their client isn’t happy with the inspection, not because they have three companies that do great work.  For more tips on finding an inspector on-line, read this post by one of my favorite bloggers:  How hard can it be to find a good Home Inspector?