HOME INSPECTIONS SVC

Our realtor personally recommended him to us. We thought the service was great; he did the report right there on site. He completed his written report and printed it out from his truck and we reviewed it. He was very thorough and we were very happy with his work. The pricing was competitive. He was very professional, responsive and right on time. He was very busy but he managed to fit within our window. I gather that he is pretty much in demand.

We moved from Wisconsin to the Louisville area and this particular inspector was recommended by our real estate broker. We were unable to attend the inspection due to professional obligations, and we counted on Mr. Bartholomew's ethics and professionalism to do a thorough and complete inspection. He passed this house, which cost close to 600,000 dollars with a few caveats, but nothing major. We purchased the home feeling comfortable about the stability of the structure. Since we moved in, we have had to pour over 100,000 dollars on just repairs! The roof leaked in several places and we spent weeks with buckets in several rooms. The gutters are the wrong size and thus rain drainage is an issue. The water heaters leaked and had to be replaced, There was mold in the basement. The air-conditioner unit is too small for the house and had not been cleaned in years. It eventually malfunctioned completely and had to be replced at the cost of $4000! The HVAC rotor unit was being held together by a plastic "twisty" that clearly could be seen tied to the cover handle. I could go on and on, but that would be tedious. Do not use Rick Bartholomew for house inspections and it is even a travesty that he is licensed. He would not last a day in Wisconsin.

They responded quickly to my call, but I knew I was in trouble when Bob Ford got out of the car with a little pencil and a small folded up four by four piece of paper in his hands. That's how he was going to take notes of the inspection to then transfer over to what looked like a 1970's-ish carbon paper, handwritten "report". No photos. Didn't get on the roof (its a ranch), didn't even get up a ladder to get a closer look at the gutters, roof, vents, chimney. No binoculars either. Didn't get all the way in the attic (plenty of room to walk around) so he missed some open air electrical connections and sagging drywall. Saw and identified to me a double tapped circuit in elec panel and blew it off. Didn't even bother tripping the breaker to see what was on it. The door leading to garage was a hollow wooden door not a fire rated metal door. He missed non-working outlets cause he didn't test any of them. The garage door opener rewired not to code, duct tape falling down around furnace, and a slew of other albeit minor issues that should have been caught by someone who supposedly was in the construction business for many years. And although he was a personable enough guy, he tried to get me to attend his church which is why I gave him a low grade for professionalism. Looks like I basically took the house as is.