IS BEING A HOME INSPECTOR EASY?

I remember when I decided to become a home inspector (per owner Chuck).  I’d been involved in the home building or remodeling business since the age of 18.  I didn’t start out doing anything glamorous.  I worked for a great custom home building as a bit of a gopher guy.  Some days I’d go move hoses on the sod that was being water. Other days I’d go do cleanup of the home as we were getting ready to complete it.  And yet other days, I’d be called out to a job to fix something – usually simple things like a door that wouldn’t latch correctly, or perhaps a small drywall fix.

As time went on I learned how to trim homes and became known as the trim guy.  It was a fun job as I learned from a master trim guy by the name of Jerry.  He loved showing me the tricks of good trim work.

Being a home inspector is a lot different than being a trim carpenter; and it’s nothing like being the project manager of a beautiful custom home.  The places we have to poke our heads into or the things we walk on or smell are definitely not pretty.  Some of the inspectors we learn from in our professional organizations recently reported these findings:

OH THE THINGS WE SEE

“Possibly the worst thing I’ve seen would be the erosion of surface soils, ever so slight, that leave a pathway for surface waters to reach the base of a foundation. With that in mind, the basement floor (from built-up pressure) and specific parts of the foundation wall had begun to have hairline cracks that were showing signs of water entry.”—Walter K

“A basketball-sized hole. I mean, a literal hole. [I’m on the roof and] you could see all the way down into the attic to the drywall. Judging from the debris on the roof and in the gutters, it appears that [there] may have been a large tree branch that fell and caused the damage. Rather than having it repaired properly, the sellers put it on the market knowing it would be sold almost immediately. The previous owners used a tarp to cover the hole temporarily and painted the ceiling to cover up the water marks.”  Inspector AJ

HOW ABOUT US?

I’ve seen some pretty nasty things during my career, such as rotted floorboards, infestations of all kinds, and electrical wiring that would make your hair stand on end.  A dead raccoon in the attic. A snake nest in the basement. I even inspected a home once where there was so much trash and garbage that I had to leave the home after about 20 minutes and call the buyer (who happened to live in Texas) to say “I’d suggest you walk from this home”.  That doesn’t typically happen.

All of these things are yet again a reminder that skipping a home inspection can be a huge mistake because you never know what might be lurking beneath the surface.”