Concept of Home Inspection

(Being a Consultant)

 

In the 1960’s & 70’s when a person was going to buy their first house they called their dad or father-in-law and asked him to take a look at the house they were thinking about buying.  The young couple was looking for a second opinion, a trusted opinion, an opinion that wasn’t influenced by a commission. 

 

In more recent years that family based unbiased opinion has been harder to find.  Families have become more mobile and now live farther apart.  Lives have become more complicated, jobs have become more specialized and fewer and fewer people know proper building techniques.

 

In order to gain that trusted opinion, and another set of eyes, new buyers started hiring local contractors and builders to take a look at the prospective purchase.  Some business minded contractors added this “inspection” to their company’s services. 

 

Banks started asking for inspections in order to protect their own interests.  Associations of home inspectors started forming; standards were established, followed by some states mandating licensure for these “home inspectors.”

 

These changes have happened over the last 40 years, all in an effort to help ensure the new home buyer doesn’t make a big mistake when buying a home.

 

Home inspectors are hired by the buyers to make sure there are no unseen defects with the house that would adversely affect the value of the home or make it a dangerous place to live.  That’s the funny part; Home Inspectors are hired to find the unseen defect, yet can only report on readily accessible systems, components and clearly visible defects.  Fortunately Home Inspectors use knowledge and experience to see things that the homeowner doesn’t see.  The trained eye can detect problems that would elude the layman’s and discount apparent problems that are not really a big deal.

 

A more accurate title for Home Inspector is “Buyers’ Consultant”, because the truth is, a home inspection is by definition -‘a non-invasive, visual examination of a property’- and is very limited in its scope.  But a trusted consultant can be invaluable when making the biggest purchase of one’s life.  A well trained Home Inspector can be that consultant, prior to the purchase and beyond.