Home Inspections

[BobT]

Hi Buckeye,

I believe every home buyer or seller should have an accurate evaluation of a house they intend to buy or sell.

At the same, I feel many of these "inspection" services have taken on a quasi-dictatorial manner which screws up a great many real estate deals. Just ask your broker. In most states, the "inspectors" are not licensed, certified, educated or even tested in any way. There is one national "organization" for home inspectors which costs around $350 to join. That is the extent of their "qualifications."

Interestingly, the code of ethics and even the application form for that organization stresses that the inspectors must avoid engaging in conflict of interest, and specifically warns against creating false reports to generate cash for themselves or friends. The idea that home inspectors are a "professional" is incorrect in most states, since they are not one of the regulated "professions." People need to understand just what their status is.

We had a very troubling incident last year in trying to sell our own home. We had had our own inspection done, and everything was okay. Our home, while around 20 years old, is exceptionally well cared for, and we have always fixed every item, however minor, and always used the finest materials. Still, if there was anything wrong that we were unaware of, we wanted to fix it prior to sale. The inspection report was fine.

However, the seller had their own home inspector who "failed" our septic system. He claimed, he could "smell" sewage. The system had passed two separate dye tests in a three month period, and had never caused one problem for us. Still, this inspector caused the collapse of our house sale. We lost out on a $175,000 deal.

We had no recourse at all, and now all of the real estate agents consider our property has a "septic problem." It does not have any problem at all, but short of installing a whole new system, we can't "prove" that it is in good order.

We even hired two different septic engineers (paid $200) and had two experienced septic installers out to examine our system. Result was four completely different answers (opinions)! BTW, all of these examiners said there was nothing wrong with the functionality of our system, but each failed to correctly identify the soil type, field type, etc. Not one got it right. We had the original plans and code report done at the time of construction of the house.

Fine, do an inspection. But IMO too many "inspections" are simply bogus make-work for "friends" of the inspectors. If these services are going to exist, they need to be much more qualified, also regulated by the State, and subject to penalties. When they "find" problems with a house a couple of weeks before closing, it practically forces the seller to put in a new component. In our case, the buyers inspector "found" more than $15,000 of "problems" that needed fixing. AND, OF COURSE, HE WAS ONLY TOO GLAD TO "RECOMMEND" COMPANIES TO DO THE WORK. Talk about unethical...

Obviously, I think home inspectors are of limited value. I would instead hire a good housing contractor or engineer. I put more weight on their opinions, because they are educated and licensed. Enough of these glorified ditch diggers hauling their little plastic bucket of tools around and calling themselves "home inspectors.” I am sure there are some qualified home inspectors out there. But in too many areas, they have assumed far too great a role in the "approval" process of buying or selling a home.

Just my experience & opinions...

 

[Chuck52]

In my experience both buying and selling, one inspection always seems to add some $$$ to the deal. A termite inspection will find evidence of possible termite damage in the past, assuming there is no present infestation.

Chuck

 

[gws]

The home inspection your bank does is going to be different than one a home buyer would pay for. The bank just wants to make sure th house will be standing by the end of the loan and little more. The buyer paid inspector will do whatever the buyers want him to do. Some might nitpick, some might go over just the machanicals. A good inspector should note EVERY issue, nitpick or not, then explain to the buyer that these are nitpick issues. He should not issues with major machanicals, land grading, secuirty, saftety, health issues as well as building code issues.

Now keep in mind, what the inspector finds has nothing to do with you. If the inspector finds something that concerns the buyers they can come back to you and tell you to repair it. You can also tell them no. Its a negoatiable issue. If the buyers really want the house and there are no major issues you can usually work out a deal. Also keep in mind an inspectors report can be used for either party to get out of a contract as well.

 

[HMD]

Bob,

You have brought up many good points. I sometimes forget how great it is to be working with real estate in Texas. All inspectors must be licensed by the Texas Real Estate Commission, and it is not an easy license to get. You do have to work under a licensed inspector for a certain amount of time, and the number of class hours is amazing, along with a state test.

I did have an inspector casually try to give out a business card of another contractor during an inspection - once - he never did another inspection for one of my clients, or any of our agents, and I dare say he did very few in our area after that.

Texas does have a whole lot more regulation to real estate transactions (the basic contract is 9 pages... without any addendums). It is only a matter of time before other states catch up to what may be most individuals biggest investment. (Don't get me wrong... I am not a fan of regulation for the most part... but when I see abuse of a system going on, I get infuriated). It should be the job of the various associations to keep high quality members...

I am sorry that you have had such a terrible experience in selling your home... unfortunately, you are not alone. It's a shame inspectors have been allowed to get by with this behaviour... and there are many great ones out there. Just takes a few to give the whole bunch a bad name. (Guess the same could be said about real estate agents... I've heard some stories that make me want to cry...)

I would make sure the agent you are working with has a copy of your original install, along with the various reports. Most buyers have the intelligence to look at the various evaluations to come to a reasonable decision.

Marie

 

[Bird]

I have a friend; former co-worker, who after retirement got his license as a home inspector. I would think if inspectors weren't licensed or certified in some manner, folks wouldn't have any more confidence in their inspections than they would just doing their own inspection.

I'll very likely sell our place this year, and I'd encourage any potential buyers to have an inspection done.

 

[BobT]

Hi Marie,

You there in Texas are doing it RIGHT. Lucky you! All you said means that the whole transactions is on a high level of professionalism. Unfortunately only 4 or so states actually license inspectors---Texas is one of them apparently. I do hope you are right that most other states will follow suit. It is overdue. I mean, even barbers and Vietnamese nail painters are more regulated!

 

[Harv]

<font color=blue>I'll very likely sell our place this year</font color=blue>

That's kind of a shocker, Bird. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

We all just got comfortable around your place and in your shop. Please tell us that wherever you wind up, there will be enough acreage to require a tractor.

 

[BobinCols]

The people that bought our suburban house in 1998 also had it inspected. The house was 45 years old and I was somewhat apprehensive as you. The buyer, inspecter, and myself were all present. The inspecter was thorough but not pushy. I had to fix a GFI in one bathroom and get our unattached garage termite treated. If I were buying a preowned house, I would get an inspection as our buyers did.
As you, I was not afraid of the house being bad but of doing something that was new to me and not knowing what to expect if the inspection caused the deal to fall thru. If the inspector finds nothing major wrong, don't let the buyers nit pick it to death to try to get it cheaper as you stated they might as you are as low as you want to go.

 

[buckeye]

I surfed the net using Google and found a sample inspection sheet used in California. Figuring good old CA is more stringent than most states, I printed out this form and did my own inspection yesterday afternoon. Obviously I am not certified for this, but it was fun to go through this comprehensive checklist and see how the house did. The only real big thing I found structure-wise was that some varmit (more than likely a ground squirrel) has burrowed into the crawlspace where the sewage line penetrates the block foundation on the way to the septic tank. The varmit's hole came out in the flower bed near the house, allowing some water into the crawlspace. Other than that the crawlspace is like any other I have been in: dark, mildly damp and too many spider webs for my liking. There is a small settlement crack on the brick on the outside and a small crack on the bedroom wall that was there when we moved in seven years ago. As far as I can tell, it has not grown. The previous owners made the same comment.

As for the inside, the house was built without grounds to all of the outlets and no GFCI outlets in the kitchen or bathroom. I have known this for a while, but not really taken the time to upgrade them due to my inherent distrust of electrical stuff. (More like my inherent distrust in my ability to work with electrical stuff).

I guess in the end, my apprehension is due to the fact it feals like I'm being graded on the house. It's like being back in school again with a large project. Thanks for all the input. I really appreciate the insight of the group.

 

[Bird]

Harv, nothing's definite yet; don't know whether we could find a buyer willing to pay what we'd want for the place, but a combination of factors make it obvious that we should sell and move, so it's for sale, although I won't make any serious effort to sell it before May (when the grass is green, trees have leaves, flowers are blooming, garden is in, etc./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif). And in all probability, if we sell it, I'll have a tractor and implements, shop full of tools and equipment, etc. for sale, too./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Do you know anyone who'd like to live 60 miles south of Dallas?/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif