Choosing An Inspector
Choosing An Inspector
| By following these simple steps, you can help to ensure that you are making the right choice when selecting a Home Inspector. |
When it is time for you to start looking for a Home Inspector, where can you find a list of qualified companies from which to choose? You might want to ask your Realtor, Banker, or Attorney for a list of names. Otherwise you can search the web, look in the Yellow Pages under Home Inspections, ask friends or co-workers, or check out the directories of top national organizations such as NAHI (National Association of Home Inspectors) for a listing of Inspectors in your area. |
| 1. Choose An Inspector With Top Qualifications |
| Buying a home will likely be the largest investment
you will ever make. Consequently, it is very important to choose wisely when selecting
your Home Inspector. Is the inspector a CRI (Certified Real
Estate Inspector) of NAHI™ (National Association of Home
Inspectors) or a Certified Member of ASHI® (American
Society of Home Inspectors)? NAHI and ASHI are the only
nationally recognized Professional Associations for Home Inspectors that
require proctored testing, peer reviews, continuing education, extensive
cross training in all of a homes mechanical and structural components, and
the completion of 250 Whole House Inspections prior to becoming a CRI
or Certified Member. The NAHI and ASHI Standards of
Practice are recognized by FHA, VA, HUD, the NAR, and Court System through
North America as the legal definition of what a Home Inspection does and
does not include. A house is made of many different components and systems that
are all inter-related and are all supposed to work together. Many of these are hidden from
view, and cannot be directly viewed. It is important to choose an inspector who has the
education and quality systems to inspect your home from the ground up, and has been
involved in the installation and layout of these systems. In Washington, all home inspectors doing Structural Pest Inspections (SPI) are required to be licensed by the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA). Virtually all home inspections report on one or more of these problems and require the SPI license. For example, if a home inspection report mentions leaky pipes, plugged gutters, poor ventilation or rot (damage), the inspector has performed a structural pest inspection. State law requires that the inspection be thorough and accurate and a readily visible Inspection Control Number (ICN) be assigned to it. |
| 2. Experience and Quality |
| There is no equivalent to experience! Do you really want someone inspecting your house who is doing this "part-time?" Are they using a checklist report or a report with pictures and narrative descriptions? Another indicator is the length of time they will require to inspect your home. Most homes cannot be adequately inspected in less than two hours. |
| 3. Be Sure To Obtain A Written Report | |
Be sure that your Home Inspector provides a detailed written report, not a hand written checklist with stock responses that is given to you at the end of the inspection. A checklist can be difficult to interpret and to read, and may be void of many of the details and advice you need. A step up from this is a computer-generated report, which offers a combination of the checklist and a narrative reporting formats, and which includes digital pictures and specific comments of areas of concern. An Inspection Report should encompass four basic areas: Safety Issues -These are items that are a hazard to the occupants and could cause situations that could damage the property such as fire or flooding Maintenance Items A listing of items in need of normal maintenance or attention. This list will allow you to be pro-active in your approach to home maintenance, and hopefully, minimize your risk of being blind-sided by an unexpected expense you could have been saving for, if you had known about it. Corrections Recommended This is any
defect with the potential to present a significant expense to you, in the near term. These
items should be clearly identified, with estimated repair/replacement costs (if possible).
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| 4.
Warranty - A experienced home inspector
will be confident in their work and may offer a guarantee or warranty on their
inspection. For the newer home buyer this will be some piece of mind and
minimize the number of surprises once they move into the home. Click
here to learn about PCI's home warranty
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| 5. Licensed, Professional Affiliations, & Certifications |
| Is your inspector
licensed? All Washington Inspectors must carry a state license. Secondly, be sure that the Inspector you retain
has professional affiliations and certifications through nationally recognized
organizations such as NAHI (National Association of Home Inspectors)
as well as being a member of the realtor boards. PCI
carries NAHI's CRI
certification, WSDA's Licensed Structural Pest
Inspector, AARST certification to test for RADON
and is FHA Approved. PCI is also a member of the North Puget Sound Association of
Realtors.
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| 6.
Price Why is price last on the list? When you started searching for a home, did you say to yourself, "I am going to look high and low and find the cheapest house I can"? Of course not! Otherwise you would be moving into a run down shack on a dirt road.. What you really wanted was the best value for your money, right? You should want the same from your home inspection. Don't just go through the motions of having an inspection done. Get it done well with a truly qualified professional! With just about any purchase there are risks and the bigger the price tag, the greater the risks. The courts are full of once happy homeowners who for one reason or another are suing the seller, builder or a material supplier for something gone wrong with their new home. For every one in court, there are many more who are suffering silently with a problem home. Why? Often it is because they hired a cheap home inspector--one who spent a week at one of the inspector training mills where he picked up a wheelbarrow load of checklists and he arrived at the $100,000 to $10,000,000 house and started filling in blanks with checkmarks for a real low price, just like he learned at The Institute for Home Inspectin' and Bar Tending. Today's homes are complex engineered systems that must be properly assembled and maintained. A professional home inspector is one who has an understanding of building science and knows how your home systems are meant to interact and also understands the common ways in which they will fail. Just as importantly he also knows how to communicate this information clearly and concisely. This knowledge comes with education, ongoing training and experience. Our fees start at $350 with additional charges for square footage over 2,000 SF, crawl spaces, age and distance. Click here to see how our price compare. Is a professional home inspection worth the extra cost? Click here to see what our clients say about their home inspection experience with a professional inspector. What is a $25 or $50 difference in price compared to your potential exposure if, due to inexperience, your "low budget" inspector overlooks an expensive defect? On balance, you will find that hiring the best doesn't cost, it pays! |
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Pacific Crest Inspections
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Pacific Crest Inspections is a licensed inspection company providing home inspections, commercial inspection and pest inspections in the Bellingham, Wa. area. Pacific Crest inspections is licensed by Washington State and carries the highest certification “Certified Real Estate Inspection” offered by the National Association of Home Inspectors (NAHI) Pacific Crest Inspections conducts their Washington State home inspections according to the National Association of Home Inspectors Standards of Practice & Code of Ethics. These professional home inspection standards provide a minimum guideline for conducting a Bellingham, Washington home inspection. Our home inspection standards are available for viewing under the "Consumer Information" section of our website or ask your Arizona home inspector for a copy of the NAHI Standards of Practice & Code of Ethics prior to your Bellingham home inspection.