How to Hire an Inspector

Conﬂict of interest!

The person you hire to inspect your home is there to inspect your home — period.

If he or she oﬀers to come back to your home as a con-tractor, plumber, or other professional, that represents an unethical conﬂict of interest. He or she might be trying to discover “defects” to repair later on, at your expense.

Consider terminating the inspection on the spot, re-fusing to pay, or ﬁling a complaint with any professional organizations that have certiﬁcated the inspector.

• Again, don’t take a referral from a real estate agent. Do consider taking a recommendation from your attorney, who should be completely on your side in the transaction. You don't want to get ripped off by an inspector who is in collusion with the selling agent.

• Ask for referrals from people you know who used inspectors to buy their homes. Did the inspector they used ﬁnd everything that was wrong? Or did he or she overlook problems that surfaced later on?

• Look for somebody who has real construction experience (an engineer, plumber, construction-company owner or electrician), not a decorator or landscaper. Ask ahead of time about their background. Ask speciﬁcally about expertise in plumbing and electrical systems, too. You might not ﬁnd a former plumber or electrician, but you should at least have an inspector who really knows about those vital systems. Also: Those are the two areas where problems are most likely to be missed, since not all problems are visible to the naked eye.

• Make a checklist ahead of time with your speciﬁc concerns about the house, based on what you saw (e.g., roof, wet basement, etc.). Ask how the inspector evaluates such problems before you hire him or her.

• Ask whether the inspector does all the required inspections in your area, or that your mortgage lender will require, such as termite inspections or radon inspections. Why hire multiple inspectors to do these extra inspections, when you can probably ﬁnd just one inspector who can do them all?

PREVIOUS PAGE - Ask Government Inspect Buildings

NEXT PAGE - Certifed Inspector