Home Standards Inspection Services

Although I feel I'm mechanically inclined and can spot problems myself during a walkthrough, I feel it was well worth the expense of hiring a home inspector like Steve because I can submit my list of safety faults or mechanical faults to the seller and potentially have those items already fixed before I move in without me having to do the work myself. He gave me a printed color report in a 3 ring binder at the end of the inspection and I can put it on my bookshelf to remind me of the things I need to keep an eye on in the future, or for those items I chose not to bother the seller about that I feel comfortable doing myself. Steve was courteous and punctual....we needed the inspection done quickly and we were able to schedule him to come 2 days after I called...even during the busiest time of year for home sales. Update: I lowered my grades on this company because after moving in to my new house, I discovered some problems that were not adequately relayed to me by the inspector, and after emailing the owner I never rec'd any call or email back whatsoever. And when I asked the sellers to fix the minor items they almost laughed at me for trying to nickel and dime them and I was unable to convince them to fix anything before moving in. Also, some of the items seriousness were not relayed to me, such as a dripping faucet that turned out to be completely inoperative, and shower heads that were completely unusable, and siding that needs to be replaced where the deck attaches, and 3 half switched outlets in the living room that were completely dead that turned out to be 2 faulty electrical switches on a 4 way circuit. If I had been able to tell the sellers these items were completely broken instead of just "dripping", I might have had more negotiating power. If I had to hire another inspection company, I would go with a more national and large company because at least they offer you a money back guarantee so that if you find things wrong with your house that the inspector missed, you will get your money back up to the amount of the inspection fee. This smaller locally owned company is a risk because they offer no such guarantee. I also lowered my review because the buyer of my house also hired this company to inspect my previous house that I was selling, and that inspector cost me a lot of money that should have been spent elsewhere, because he claimed that I had drainage issues around my foundation on the north side where there were absolutely none because we had already had that area fixed when we bought the house, and yet I had to spend $400 hiring a grading guy to come and add dirt where I had already had work done...and this other inspector (different guy (Tim) from the one that inspected my new home (Steve)) was very overconfident of his ability to judge grading and I think he should've left that decision up to the professional grader rather than upset my buyers about a non-existent issue. Another issue that came up during my new home inspection was that Steve tried to tell me the basement wood door to the patio was swelling and sticking due to basement humidity. After I moved in I operated the knob and it was very clear to me that the knob was malfunctioning, you could feel metal hitting metal and so I rotated the knob the other way and it retracted the doorknob striker and operated normally one way, but not the other, so I had to replace the door knob. I think an inspector should be able to detect the difference between the rubbing wood feeling from a sticking door due to swelling as compared to the metal on metal contact of a striker hitting a striker plate, but perhaps I ask too much...what do I know, I'm just a lowly homeowner.