Smart Move Home Inspections LLC

I picked Smart Move Home Inspections based on positive reviews on free review sites. I also visited Smart Move's website, where I learned more about Smart Move's services and discovered that the owner is a fire fighter who also does home inspections. My experience was mixed. I do have several positive things to say about Ryan Hardage and Smart Move Home Inspections, but the experience was not flawless. PROS: First, I was in contact with Ryan about six months before we ever did business together. At that time, I was trying to close on a short sale home, and I must have scheduled and then cancelled at least four home inspection appointments with Ryan. The contract on the house kept getting caught up in red tape. It was a nightmare. Ryan was very patient and understanding about all the rescheduling (although I was always very apologetic and was careful to keep him in the loop -- I never stood him up for an appointment). Another thing I like about Smart Move is that Ryan is extremely responsive. Over the course of 6 months of contact, I have never had trouble reaching Ryan by phone or email. If you leave him a message, he gets back to you super fast. Finally, Ryan's pricing is right on par with the market. He quoted me $350 for inspecting a small 3 BR/1 BA home in the spring, but that inspection never came to pass. He charged me $350 about six months later to inspect another, only slightly bigger, 3 BR/1 BA. CONS: When I first spoke with Ryan in the spring, I let him know that I wanted to be present for the inspection to ask questions and see things for myself. Ryan was very agreeable -- in fact, he encouraged this. When I actually had my inspection with Ryan in December, things were very busy at my office and I could not take off work. Instead, I sent my boyfriend (with whom I'm purchasing the home -- we've been partners for nearly seven years now) and my boyfriend's father (a general handyman who sometimes works on houses). My real estate agent was also present. Let me be clear: I did not spring this on Ryan. I told him by phone two days ahead of the inspection that I really wanted to be there but couldn't, and I told him who would be attending in my place. For reasons I don't entirely understand, Ryan was really unprofessional about having my boyfriend's father, Bill, present. Within 10 minutes of the start of the inspection, he called me at the office to complain that Bill seemed to be doing his own inspection. He made several comments about this that were petulant in tone and struck me as very weird coming from a professional. Later, he called me again to tell me Bill was trying to do unauthorized repairs to the toilet in the home. Again, the tone was a mix of angry and whiny. (It turned out that the toilet fixture was not properly set and Bill was just taking a closer look.) Although I was not physically there at the house, both my boyfriend and my real estate agent tell me that Bill was perfectly pleasant. I can only surmise that Ryan does not like to work under the scrutiny of people who know a lot about houses. I am sure this adds pressure to the job, but it is no reason to be rude. Lastly, I question the thoroughness of Ryan's work. Bill advised me of a problem with the house that Ryan had not noticed. Bill was polite as can be about the oversight and even sent me a bunch of pictures to show me what Ryan had missed. I called Ryan while he was still preparing the home inspection report and asked if I could send him the pictures. I was hoping we could include the issue (it was a structural problem) in the report so that we could negotiate with the seller. Ryan snapped at me that he had seen the problem himself and that it would be in his report, but that he did not need Bill's pictures. Guess what? It wasn't in the report. Therefore, we had no professional opinion about that structural issue with which to negotiate. We had to let the house go. In summary... Ryan seems like an adequate home inspector, but either he is not terribly thorough in general, or he let the fact that a handyman was present for his inspection irk him to the point that he moved too quickly. Either way, he missed something essential, which caused me to waste my $350. I will not be working with him again.