What to Look for in a Home Inspector – Are you looking forward to purchasing a home and saying goodbye to paying a monthly rental fee? If yes, you need to go the extra mile to ensure the house you want to buy is in good condition. That’s where a home inspection comes in.
A home inspection is a process of examining the condition of a property by a qualified inspector. It includes assessing the home’s physical structure and systems from its basement to the roof. A home inspection should be the last step before you finalize the purchase of your house.
There are several benefits of home inspection. These include enabling you to understand the home’s condition, rectifying minor issues before they become too big, and, more importantly, negotiating for better prices. However, you must ensure you’re working with a good home inspector.
Here are the qualities to look for in a home inspector.
Proper Credentials
Like any other professional career, a home inspector is required to go under special training before acquiring a practicing certificate. The qualifications to become a home inspector varies from one country to another. However, most states require a home inspector to possess a diploma or bachelor’s degree certificate in engineering or architecture.
Other than attaining the required academic qualifications, home inspectors should be registered to a relevant professional organization. To ensure you’re working with a licensed home inspector, ensure to see their credentials.
Adequate Experience
Possessing the right credentials isn’t enough. You also need to find an experienced home inspector.
Experience is the knowledge and skills a person has gained throughout their working duration in a specific field. A home inspector with many years of providing services is likely to be more experienced than an individual who just started working recently. It’s best to look for an experienced house inspector.
Finding an experienced home inspector is important, especially when you’re planning to renovate the home. For instance, such a professional can do a thorough mold inspection to help spot any leakage in your home. This enables you to take the necessary measures to fix any issues in the house.
On the other hand, an inexperienced home inspector may lack a wider scope of knowledge to help identify such issues. For that reason, you might not be able to repair your house entirely. This can harm your home in the future, especially when the problem becomes too big to manage. Moreover, it can cost you more money.
Positive Reviews
There are several home inspectors out there. However, not all of them are bona fide or can provide better services. Some are there to take advantage of your hard-earned money or provide substandard services. So, to avoid that from happening, find a home inspector with positive reviews.
After seeking services, most customers leave opinions or feedback on the specific home inspector’s website. It can either be positive or negative.
Good opinions or reviews show that most customers were satisfied with the service of the specific home inspector. Consider seeking home inspection services from such an individual or company.
On the other hand, negative feedback shows that other customers or homeowners didn’t get satisfaction with the service given by a specific home inspector. Avoid working with such an individual as much as possible because you’re likely to experience the same.
Fully Insured
A home inspection is an extensive activity that requires the use of dangerous tools. Some of these include screwdrivers, electricity testers, icepicks, pocket knives, and others. These tools pose a great danger to workers.
It is inevitable for accidents, such as slipping and falling, to happen. The personal injury law requires you to compensate and pay medical bills for such a worker. This can cost you a lot of money. So, to avoid this, work with a home inspection company that has fully insured its workers.
A home inspection company that has insured their workers ensures you’re not liable for any injuries sustained by their workers. You can guarantee that their insurance companies will cover everything.
Ability To Provide Helpful Report
A home inspection process helps identify problems in a property. This enables you to rectify or put preventive measures to the home’s present and future issues. However, this is only possible if you’ve got detailed information about the problem. That’s why you need to find a home inspector who can write a comprehensive report.
You should select a home inspector who is able to write a detailed report in a comprehensible language. This enables you to get a clear picture of the identified problems. Such an inspector should also be able to provide you with images of the areas that require your attention. By studying their previous works, you can identify the inspector’s ability to write a detailed report.
Great Customer Service
Customer service plays a major role in the success of a home inspection. It determines whether you’ll be satisfied or not. Hire a home inspector who can provide great customer service.
There are several things to consider when determining your home inspector’s customer service level. The first is how a specific home inspector communicates with you.
A good home inspector is someone who is open, approachable, and available when needed. They should be able to provide information in real time. For that reason, you might want to find a home inspector who utilizes modern communication tools like chatbots and other live chat applications.
Another thing that can help determine the level of customer service your home inspector has is punctuality. Your home inspector should be able to show up to appointments on time. This is important because you might not want to waste your time waiting for a home inspector who takes ages to respond to your requests.
Takeaway
Inspecting is essential whether you want to buy a new home or remodel your existing one. A home inspection is a process of examining a home to identify any potential issues in it.
Inspecting a home can help determine its true value and enable you to carry out a renovation process more smoothly. However, you must ensure you’re working with the best home inspector in the market.
As explained in this article, there are several qualities to look for in a home inspector. Before you sign a deal with any home inspector, ensure they possess the mentioned qualities – What to Look for in a Home Inspector