I'm in the final stages of selling my house. 17 days to closing. Buyers recently had the home inspected.

Apparently, I got Chicken Little as a home inspector.


1) OMG the garage lintel is sagging and the brick facade is cracking!!!

Brick mason comes out. Takes a look. Laughs. Says "He said this was sagging? I don't know what he's talking about. The lintel isn't sagging, and that little crack in the mortar is totally normal. It's from a combination of the house settling and/or the repeated vibrations from the garage door."

Brick mason is going to write up a letter certifying that it's not a structural issue.


2) OMG the water pressure is only 20 PSI!!!!

"Odd", says me. "I haven't noticed any issues with the water pressure lately..." Pull out my pressure gauge, hook it to the spigot, and turn it on. 45 PSI. Just like it's been.

So now a certified plumber's coming out to do the same with his gauge, and to sign off that it's officially within normal range.


3) OMG there's a piece of kickout flashing missing from the gutter where the roof meets the kitchen wall and and a moisture meter says that stud in the adjoining interior wall is saturated with water!!!!!

Contractor comes out, pulls off the sheetrock in that section of the kitchen, and finds bone dry drywall, stud, and insulation. No mold/mildew, no wet stud, or any other sign of moisture.

Contractor is going to come back tomorrow with a moisture meter, install the piece of missing flashing, and then sign off that it's not a problem.



So that's now three contractors that I'm paying out of pocket just to reassure the buyers that their inspector was wrong, and the house is fine.


Realtor joked that the inspector's pressure gauge and moisture meter must both be broken.



Luckily, everything else is minor stuff, like loose fence boards, a loose toilet, and a couple sagging deck boards. Simple repairs.

Sounds like he took a guess at the water pressure to come up with the nice round number of 20psi.

Home inspectors have to nit pick and some make shit up, like your guy. If they find nothing wrong, they know they’re not needed. When I sold a house a long time ago I was dinged for a cracked receptacle cover in the garage behind where my old Corvette sat. I always kept it backed in close to the wall to save room. How he got in there to see that without scratching it, I have no idea.

I live in a state where hair dressers have to be licensed, but any idiot can call himself a home inspector.

I hear from people who’ve had these chicken little inspectors kill sales. I’ve also heard of inspectors that have missed glaringly obvious issues that should have stopped the sale unless they were fixed.

I am usually against more government meddling, but strongly believe home inspectors should be regulated to ensure they have some have some level of training.

quote:

I live in a state where hair dressers have to be licensed, but any idiot can call himself a home inspector.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I used to laugh at that too. I held a professional license in my field in Wisconsin. They published the wrongdoings of all the professions from funeral directors, doctors and hairdressers. They have to deal with customers who kids have head lice, and other diseases. One hairdresser permanently burned off a woman's hair by leaving the chemicals on too long. They deal with some pretty noxious chemicals on a daily basis.

I do think home inspectors should have some licensing.

These idiots will totally kill a sale. Ego trips. Homes are never perfect but when is the last time one fell down. I’ve seen some of these reports that are 30 pages long.

Arkansas requires a 2 week training course and an exam to be licensed by the state as a home inspector.

So it's not nothing, but it's not a lot...

When we were buying a newly-constructed home 22 years ago, I wanted a home inspector to look at it. My dime!!! He inspected the house and said it was in great shape except for the area where the deck meets the house. Apparently, the builder never put a waterproof barrier between the deck and the siding.

I asked him about the bathroom vent: was it venting directly to the attic or outside? It was venting into the attic. We had both issues changed and we were weel satisfied with the fees of $500.

This guy was very thorough and professional. Guess I got lucky!

The one that did the house I’m in now was worthless. Obvious stuff like balustrades that are 5 inches apart.

I hate them. They have to write your home down for some infractions to try and make it look like they found something wrong. I look forward to the day I get to sell my house. A buyer pulls this shit or a home inspector I’m yanking it and raising the price 5-10k. I hate the mother fuckers coming into my house on a refi too. They can’t just take a look around, check the breaker box, etc. Nope now they are all up in every little corner of your home. I don’t want them in the closet where my gun safe is and they bark about it. “I need to get in there” and I say no, it’s locked. There is no plumbing in there what the fuck do you think that I’m hiding a termite problem in the closet when the rest of the house is maintained 100%?

Best of luck to you. Buying or selling is always a PITA.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
I hate them. They have to write your home down for some infractions to try and make it look like they found something wrong.

...

Best of luck to you. Buying or selling is always a PITA.

That's it, they are trying to show they are earning their money. In the middle of selling my house, most things on the inspectors report I put in the sellers disclosure.

It's a pain in the ass when selling but it can help to spot things that you don't see during a showing, especially when the inspector actually knows what he's looking at. The inspector we used when buying is also a licensed structural engineer. He showed us a lot of things about the structure of the house that made us realize that we picked a house in excellent shape other than the usual wear and tear things in a 41 year old house.

Had the "other" type inspector when I bought this place. Realtor (bad choice) had this guy do report. Roof? no. there is snow on it so can't inspect it. Septic system? nope, don't know where it is. Owner did not know! Owner did not know where the "dug well" was either. VA inspection was not much better.

quote:

Originally posted by kx90:

That's it, they are trying to show they are earning their money. In the middle of selling my house, most things on the inspectors report I put in the sellers disclosure.

It's a pain in the ass when selling but it can help to spot things that you don't see during a showing, especially when the inspector actually knows what he's looking at. The inspector we used when buying is also a licensed structural engineer. He showed us a lot of things about the structure of the house that made us realize that we picked a house in excellent shape other than the usual wear and tear things in a 41 year old house.

This is why it is best to hire a reputable home inspector to come in before you even list the property. Get your own eval done first.

I discussed that with my realtor, and his advice was not to have the home inspected first.

You're required to disclose every issue that the inspector finds if you have a pre-inspection. Whereas with the buyer's inspector after contract, they may or may not notice certain things.

Sure, if you think your roof might be bad, or your foundation might need work, or other big issues, it's probably worth having those checked out before listing, so you can handle those big projects beforehand if needed, rather than having it kill the deal or having to rush the repairs to make the closing date.

But if your house is newer and in good shape, and you're confident that it's just going to be little trivial things, you don't want to be on the hook for every loose cabinet hinge, nail pop, and chip of paint that your own inspector found, but the buyer's inspector would have missed later.

I was going to do the pre-inspection thing on my house but my realtor said absolutely not. Let the buys inspector find things and negotiate from there. Things that I put in the disclosure that their inspector put in his report I thought they would've wanted to fix were not an issue, they ask for a few grand in sellers assist in lieu of having to fix anything and they'll take care of everything when they move in. OK by me.

Now the U&O, sewer lateral line and chimney inspections will all be on me to fix any issues that prevent any of those certifications from being issued. I never used the chimeny, the sewer line was just fixed before the new year and it was scoped and was good after that. U&O is a joke if you ask me, they missed a bunch of stuff when I bought that house.

We had a young couple move into the house next door . Their first home . Turns out there was some kind of structural issue regarding the fireplace . Not sure of the details . They had an inspection but he didn't catch it . When they contacted him , he just blew it off . " I missed it , sue me ." He knew those kids didn't have the money to fight his Insurance company .

Well, inspectors aren't superhuman. They don't have x-ray vision. They can't see into the walls, or under the foundation.

Even the best inspector could miss a structural issue if there aren't any external signs.

Finding a good inspector is like locating a needle in a haystack.

Around here, they simply don't know jack from shit and miss all kinds of violations.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Well, inspectors aren't superhuman. They don't have x-ray vision. They can't see into the walls, or under the foundation.

Even the best inspector could miss a structural issue if there aren't any external signs.

The homeowner found it himself after they moved in . And he's a dorky Physical Therapist with no building experience . He said he's sure the seller knew as well . Everybody pretty much dared him to sue over it . I have no idea how it turned out .

In 2015 the inspector that we had inspect our pre-owned 2008 built home refused to climb up on the roof. Inspections were running months behind at the time so we were in a bind. He climbed a ladder and found a half dozen cracked tiles with binoculars though. His report was the roof was in good condition otherwise.

Later we experienced a leak which was traced to the fact that the roof ridge was never closed off, just plywood butted together and covered by tar paper which was failing. And one of the roof valleys was done so incorrectly that rain puddled and seeped through the roof onto the ceiling. $8000 later to repair crappy workmanship.

The chimney surround above the chase was constructed of 2x4s and plywood with a facade of faux stone, which over the years had been heavily charred by previous use of the fireplace. Another $2000 to fix crappy workmanship.

The new construction never should have passed new construction inspection.

IMO, it's way past time for states to create meaningful licensing requirements including some sort of bond so the inspectors have to do their job. They need to have the same financial risk as CPAs or Lawyers.

Regulations can be drafted to rule out the crazy stuff like a screw is missing. But inspectors need to be responsible if repairs turn out to be say greater than say $5,000.

I know a young couple. She didn't want her dad to inspect the property - wanted to be independent. Inspector never went into the crawl space. Long term (and obvious) water leak. A few months after moving in the floors n the kitchen pretty much gave out. Luckily her dad could do a lot of the work but she was on a tight budget and just buying the materials was a big ouch.