Inspection items – what’s wrong with your home?

Austin Home Inspector
One of the inspectors we use, Bob Petersen at Precision Inspection had the published following newsletter article, which he said I could republish hear on my blog.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOUR HOME?
by Bob Petersen

I have to chuckle whenever I enter a home for an inspection and either the agent or owner informs me that, ‘this home is in excellent condition, so we doubt you’ll find anything wrong’.

My advice on these type of comments is:
1. NEVER say this to an inspector (he’ll only look harder!)
2. If you DO say it, don’t believe it (there is ALWAYS something wrong!)

After 25 years of building and inspecting I have discovered two unassailable truths about housing: none of it is perfect and everyone thinks their home is in good condition.

So for this article I thought I’d discuss what we most commonly find in the homes we inspect. For the most part these are homes which the owner has ‘kept up’ and which, from the street at least, appear pretty good. From my experience the typical home owner is thinking about paint, carpeting, roofing etc. when he thinks about the term good condition, i.e. things which he can see.

Anyone who has experienced a modern home inspection knows the inspector rarely cares about what he can see, but what he can infer from what he sees. If I see that the carpeting, paint and roof are in poor condition then I can logically deduce that items I can’t see are probably also in poor condition.

Here are some of the items we see every day:

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