Home Inspections

When buying, selling, or renovating your home, a thorough inspector is essential to the successful progression of your mission. With no formal licensing requirements to become a Missouri Home Inspector, this can be a challenge. Arming yourself with all the important “gadgets” before your inspection can save you time, money, and unnecessary headaches.

Know the mission.

There is a clear checklist that inspectors use to determine that a home is up to the national standards. They use a list of factors rated as “good”, “average”, “suspect” or “poor” to determine the structural integrity of the building. Prepare yourself for what they should be looking for and pre-inspect your home by taking a look at the items on their checklist. As a home buyer, you will know the right questions to ask during the inspection; as a seller or renovator, you can avoid having to redo an inspection or ending up with larger problems down the line.

Go, go, gadget shield! Protecting yourself with knowledge.

1) Read the Contract

Like any business deal, Inspector’s contracts will outline the services that they will be providing. Comb through the contract and understand the limitations and guarantees of the service they are providing for you. This is particularly important if you are assessing an older home, unusual features, septic tanks, etc.

2) Assess Credibility

There are two ways of finding an inspector: referral or research. Ultimately, you should intertwine these two techniques. When accepting a referral, watch out for those who may have a conflict of interest. When doing your research there are a few good forums for looking at recommendations, zillow, and  yelp, are very popular.

3) Know the limitations

Even if you have a trustworthy and thorough inspector with all the right gadgets, (s)he does not possess x-ray vision or extendable limbs like our cyborg friend Inspector Gadget. There are some aspects which tend to be commonly overlooked. Being a homeowner does pose some risks and requires minor and major  repairs here and there on your investment. Armed with an arsenal of knowledge and a final walk through, you are protecting yourself from many of the avoidable and common inspection problems. 

Written by Ciara Brewer on behalf of Monica Brewer