How to Pick a Home Inspector Q: I need to know how to pick a home inspector. On your website, you stated that people need to research the person they hire to do a home inspection. Can you please provide the methodology and resources with which to do this. Most websites are populated with 'ringers' [...]
Home Inspections: Mold A home buyer found mold in a foreclosed condo. Later, the ceiling fell in. Q: I was given your article on home inspections. The most important thing was not mentioned in your article! If you think something may be wrong, it probably is! In 2011, an agent who works with the Veteran’s [...]
Bad Home Inspection Q: I just read your column on the bad home inspection. First, who paid for the inspector? If the mortgage company paid, the lender didn’t get their money's worth. Second, on the question of the open sewerage, that seems like a no brainer to me as it was clearly a housing code [...]
Home Inspection Misses Mad that your professional home inspector missed a bunch of items? You're not alone. Q: When we bought our house six years ago, we got an inspection with a 55-page illustrated report pointing out lots of typical problems (rusty rail, reversed wiring, cracked cement, etc.). We didn't find many serious problems that [...]
Bad Home Inspection: How do we report him? Q: We had a bad home inspection before we sold our rental property. Our buyers’ inspector came out to our property to do the inspection. I don’t live near the home and wasn’t there for the inspection. I went to the house a week later. I discovered [...]
Home Inspections: home inspectors make mistakes A reader wants to know if home inspectors make mistakes when doing home inspections. Q: My home inspector did an inspection of my home before I purchased it. The home inspector made mistakes: The inspector missed that there was a hidden water line problem. He also missed a false [...]
What to do about unpermitted work when buying a house. How to look up work done on a home and who you can ask to help you make an informed decision. Q: I saw your recent column about buying a home that might not have all of the required permits for work done. You left [...]
Do I really need a home inspection before buying a home? This building inspector explains why it’s so important to hire a professional, qualified home inspector. Last October, we answered a question from a reader asking when it is okay to buy a house that was updated without pulling necessary permits. (In some areas of [...]
What does a home inspector do? This home seller thinks the requests a buyer made after the home inspection are unreasonable. Q: I enjoyed your column today in the Sunday Chicago Tribune. In your experience, have you come across buyers trying to use their home inspector to assert that there are many problems with a [...]
When a home inspector overlooks an asbestos problem, what can you do? And, how do you find an inspector who will actually have your best interests at heart? Q: We hired a home inspector to help us out when we were buying a home in Chicago. We received the report, reviewed it and later closed. [...]
