Discovery Inspections, LLC

I’m not the first complaint they had like this. Read their BBB complaint and how they handle business when things go wrong. Just hope and pray your inspection goes right because if they miss something - especially a really big problem, they will turn their cheeks. They will remind you that you signed a contract that says “you cannot hold them liable if they are negligent during your home inspection.” Be sure you read your contract and not be fooled by good reviews. Stay away from this company. My inspection was performed by Alyssa Bills on 5/23/21. They ask that you are NOT there during the inspection and now I see why -- because nothing is truly being done and your money is being stolen by this company who talk about God on their website. Don't let that fool you. She only listed 1 thing as a priority repair on my report. I moved on 6/16/21 and my roof leaked on 6/19/21. While a tech was sent to my house to work my dishwasher on 7/5/21, it was discovered that a pipe was leaking in the basement, one of my water heaters was not only broken, but the pipes on it were loose. We have it on video. She never caught that all the gas pipes were loose from the water heater. The igniter was broken and we were running on one water heater the entire time. None were mentioned on the report. Then days later, my master shower started leaking into my kitchen ceiling. When plumbers looked at it it was reported to be cracked - a $8,000 repair. Two plumbers and four remodeling companies have confirmed this as of 10/1. Chris suggested fixing it with a proxy and thank God I did not listen to him and I had a plumber open the drywall to look. Come to find out the bottom of the shower was cracked as well. Since it’s fiber glass it has to fully be replaced. Two plumbers said they won’t touch it. It needs to be remolded. They said how did the inspector not catch that your shower was cracked - it was too obvious. They saw it within 5 minutes of looking at the shower. One was shock Chris suggested a Bandaid (proxy) because had we not open the drywall we would have had mold. My realtor talked to her plumber and he said the same. I have not been able to use my master shower since moving in and today is 9/8/21. If she had listed that the top was cracked I would have at least walked away from the house or ask the owner to fix the problem or ask to have a plumber look that the shower prior to closing. I lost out on all of these options. We have 5 kids and 1 has autism and needs a lot of therapy - who can afford to fix a shower, after buying a house, and taking care of a very demanding child who has tons of different therapies. Recently we had to fix a leak under my kitchen sink from a faucet and broken garbage disposal. The plumber told me there was a previous leak under the sink. Again, not mentioned on her report. He asked if that was not mentioned on my inspection and I said no and he was in disbelief. They have not offered to help. They do not care. So many things were not listed. The owner, Gary, hides behind Chris the manager. Thousands of dollars put into a house and we have only lived there for three months. They want me to sign a document to get a refund. I finally saw the document but it is a documents that states that I can post a negative review if I get my refund or they can sue me. By law, you cannot slap a lawsuit on a consumer or is giving a truthful review. Stay away. They will bring up that you signed a contract that doesn’t hold them liable for negligence. Read your contract and don’t trust these people. You would think they were insured for big mistakes like this. We went back and forth on BBB. My realtor said she will never recommend them moving forward because she saw how they left us stranded. I refuse to sign a document that allows a company to sue me if I write a review about my experience because consumers deserve the right to learn about negative experiences in order to make a good decision on who to hire. This is the wording on the contract they wanted me to sign claiming it was for insurance purposes - on paragraph 5: I will make no public statements of any kind pertaining to the inspector or the inspection, except pursuant to a subpoena or as required by law. I will remove any comments I have posted about the inspection or the inspector from any online website, and refrain from ever making any such comments. if I breach the terms of paragraph 5, I agree to pay your reasonable attorney’s fees and costs incurred in any related legal action.

Unfortunately, we cannot recommend Discovery Inspections In selecting Discovery for our inspection we relied on the advertising on their website (including veteran status, certifications, and satisfaction guarantee (“We feel so strongly that you’ll be satisfied with our inspection service and our inspection report, we offer therefore a 200% guarantee.”) and the firm’s online reviews. Unfortunately, it appears our inspector had a bad day and at least 19 defects – fifteen of which range from $700 to $4,500 to correct were overlooked. We have made every attempt to work with their team to resolve this issue. We notified their team within 24 hours of receipt of the initial report (8/30) concerning our concerns about missing details and lack of information. We did not receive a call from Mr. Sloan until 9/7 eight days later to discuss our issues. Given the limited number of due diligence days in our home purchase agreement, we were forced to look to third-party firms to take a deeper look at the roof, the HVAC, electric and pool and spa to complete our due diligence by the contract deadline. There were no offers - verbal or written for a re-inspection from Discovery. Our third party roofer documented the second roof layer missed by our inspector, improper roofing materials used for the lower slope back roof, and an additional $4500 in needed repairs. The electric guy we sent out to check pool area concerns mentioned by the Seller during the inspection but not included in the Discovery report found pool lights spliced to form a three prong plug, no GFCI for pool lights and electric outlets in the outdoor kitchen adjacent. Our pool inspector found leaking pumps, missing timers, non- working pressure gauges and other issues totaling $1,600. Our HVAC guy was able to supply details not included in the original report. The report states we have stucco but made no attempt to identify the type. The report shows the left side of the home where the stucco continues below grade (not recommended.) This is our first stucco home and we have since learned since closing on the home from other contractors about the missed stucco issues on our home. Discovery’s website promises a FREE termite inspection with every inspection – ours seems to be MIA. By the time we closed on 9/27 we thought we knew everything we were getting in our new home. Imagine our horror when we opened the door and noticed the 8 foot x 2 foot section of water damage and wood rot in our wood cathedral ceiling. Or the mechanical room with on-demand heater and pumps using extension cords for electric. And of course the workshop area we planned to use for an office with extensive (90%) rust on the doors and electric panel, buckling walls and clear signs of water intrusion and the list goes on and on and on. We notified Discovery of the issues within 24 hours of taking possession of the home. Discovery did not meet with us to discuss the issues until 10/17. The Discovery owner has acknowledged the deficiencies in their inspection. In the past two weeks, we have had a dozen contractors through the home to get bids to fix the issues. All are amazed that Discovery missed these items. My husband and I are left with thousands of dollars in repairs not identified by their inspector. We recognize inspectors have bad days. Discovery has some great reviews so they must be doing something right. However, when their "performance" is so bad that it is going to cost their clients more than $10,000+++++ to fix the things they should have noticed, they should man up, give an apology and stand by their advertised warranty. LIke Mike Holmes says >>> Make it right. . So our two cents, think twice about using them. Their refund offer fell significantly short of the worthless 200% guarantee advertised in several places on their website. -- You will not know their "performance" is sub-par until you receive the report or move into your new home.

Chris Rowe did a really nice job inspecting the home that we're purchasing. We appreciated his willingness to answer questions and provide maintenance tips as well as point out any potential concerns. It is obvious he has some great experience as well as a good attention for detail. The report provided was very thorough. It was also easy to schedule the appointment! We would recommend Discovery Inspections! Thanks!

Basically, I would say that Discovery Inspections failed to perform in every possible way. The inspector failed to notice that there were bearing walls in the house that had no floor joists under them. The inspector also failed to notice that the foundation had bowed significantly due to the lack of support under bearing walls. As a result, in order to install hardwood floors, we had to pay out $1725 to have additional jacks and support pylons placed under the bearing walls. If that wasn't bad enough, the inspector also missed the fact that the house had a Federal Pacific Stab-Lok electrical panel. This panel is widely known throughout the industry to be a fire hazard. When we had our contractors in to replace the floors, one of them noticed the panel and said we had to have it replaced. After getting four bids on the work and determining that we could not replace the panel without bringing the house up to current code (at an approximate cost of $4000), we asked Discovery Inspections to pay for half of the cost of the electrical fix. Discovery offered to refund us $500 (less than we paid for the inspection in the first place) and we received an additional $500 from their insurance provider. When we asked for additional consideration in lieu of the nearly $6000 we were out of pocket due to their negligence, they told us that $500 was all they would pay. While this inspection company has a strong reputation in the area, I would never use them again and I would never recommend them to anyone. Stay away.

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It was great. No problems. The guy went through everything with me and explained all that he was looking for. He gave thorough explanations. I was very pleased.

The inspector had already checked and took pictures of several areas of the home when my husband and I arrived, one hour in to the inspection. He was extremely friendly and knowledgeable about everything in the home. He answered our questions before we asked, and walked us around to show us different aspects of the house. During the portion where we reviewed the Inspection Report, the inspector went over every detail showing us photos and providing his recommendations. He also followed up with as on the promised date in order to deliver our radon test results.

Gary inspected our home that was built in 1939 before we put it up for sale. His inspection was very thorough inside and out. The house had a tiny crawl space with the HVAC. Gary inspected this area and took lots of pictures. Months later when we had an offer on the house, we needed to get the date of installation of the 3 HVAC units. I called the Heating and Air company that had installed the units and had servicec the units every 6 months for the past 20 years. They were unable to determine the date of installation. I called Gary who was able to give me the exact dates within 5 minutes. In addition, because of Discovery Inspections detailed report, the house sold "as is" with No Due Diligence period!

We were very happy with Gary's work as our home inspector! His office staff was friendly when I set up the appointment. When he did the inspection, he was very thorough. He walked through the inspection with us and answered questions we had about the house and his findings. He gave recommendations on how to fix the issues he found. He also gave us great advice on home maintenance and ways that we could make the home more energy efficient. He quickly sent us an electronic version of the home inspection report that was very easy to read. The report included pictures of the home and specific pictures for each issue found. They also gave us a hard copy version of the home inspection report with full color photos. The hard copy version included two gifts for us: a set of mailing labels with a picture of our home and a very helpful book of home maintenance advice. We learned alot from Gary during the home inspection and he did a great job clearly communicating his findings!

It was very easy to set up an appointment and the reminder emails and invoicing made the process go smoothly. The company was recommended by our realtor and we would recommend the company to others. Will was very informative about tips for maintaining our prospective home and seemed very thorough. When a question came up as we were preparing the amendment to our offer, he was even helpful to our realtor who was trying to get specifics to ensure we got the repairs done correctly by the then owners of the house.

Gary had been recommended by a friend, and we were not disappointed. He was polite, very thorough, and explained his findings as he went along. He also explained what kinds of services we would need to remedy anything he found. He was on time and arrived with a colleague who also checked the house. He said we could call him any time after the inspection if we had questions.

He was very thorough, professional and came on time. That's a big thing. His price was cheaper than what my real-tor recommended. He was a very knowledgeable person. He knew the things that would be required and fixed. Their price was very reasonable. I would use him in the future.