Inspection Services Northwest Inc

Insight Inspections NW authored the seller provided inspection report. I'm aware inspections are non-exhaustive, but there are a number of glaring gaps in the inspection for items that were looked at yet not reported. The roof was "visually inspected on a ladder" and not claimed as deficient, but it was missing shakes in many places (over a dozen holes into the attic were present) They noted the lack of a high loop for the dishwasher. However, this home has a Johnson Tee, which provides a high loop. They missed the water stain from the leaking disposal--it's in their photo. The range was claimed to have anti tip...it was in the oven drawer instead. On the electrical panel, they only noted a lack of labeling. They missed the double-tapped neutrals and improper configuration for a split-bus panel. In the crawl space under the extension, they missed electrical wire not in conduit, rodent droppings, improper plumbing (inverted san-tee, missing strapping)

This was my first time using Northwest Inspection Services. I have used them again since because I was so pleased. This was to inspect a 32 unit apartment building with retail space, spanning 2 buildings.  Coordinating them to inspect occupied units would have been a real challenge (not on their part, but dealing with all the residents), so they looked in a few apartments in critical areas to check for roof damage and I inspected the actual apartments myself.

They used their thermal imaging scanner to look for active and old roof leaks, and to also look for water intrusion in the walls. This was worth the price itself, very very useful knowledge. They thoroughly checked the roofs, and recommended I follow up with a roofer (which I did, I ended up needing to replace them). They inspected all the common areas and utilities. There were a lot of water heaters and electrical panels, and they checked every single one. They inspected the crawlspaces and grounds.

All in all, they did an amazingly thorough job. They gave me a 38 page report within a couple days. It had photos of every single problem area and comments on what the problem was. This turned in to my punch list for repairs after I closed on the building.

After the inspection, I was impressed because they gave me a very fast turnaround date for when the inspection report would be formally ready, and it was ready exactly on time for download. I am used to this taking forever and I have gotten some strangely formatted and hard to read inspection reports from other inspectors. The report Inspection Services Northwest gives is clear, concise, and just exactly what you need to know.

In general - the reason I keep using Inspection Services Northwest is because of the depth of knowledge with apartment buildings (Wade, the owner, was present in both times I used them for apartment complexes). The inspector I have used for single family homes has also been exceptionally knowledgeable. I love the fact that I can pay online with a credit card, and the woman who sets up the appointment and answers my initial questions was always very friendly and got back to my instantly. During this inspection and subsequent ones, I appreciated that they answered my many many questions about what they were seeing.

I highly recommend them. I'm a real estate investor and have used them on every purchase I've made since discovering them.

Our inspector was Brian and he was very friendly and knowledgable. I was very impressed that they were able to scheduled an appointment within 24 hrs. A couple of other business I called only had appointments availabe 4 days out and not at a time that was convinent to our scheduled. At the end of the inspection Brian did a detailed walk through with us on all his finding and our inspection report was available within 24 hours.
My only issue was that at the time of the inspection the water to the house was shut off for repairs. Once the water was turned back on we wanted to schedule a follow up inspection however at the cost of $275 we passed.
We chose Inspection Service NW because they came highly recommended by our agent who has not stired us wrong yet and was very pleased with their service. I would feel very comfortable recommending them to family and friend and would use them again in the future.

While setting up the appointments, they were extremely responsive. The
first inspection was a little more planned since I had a week to put in
an offer and I was doing a preinspection. The second inspection was very
last minute, since we put a 24 inspection window into our offer. They
were able to schedule it for the next day at 9am and were flexible with
last minute cancellations in case our offer wasn't accepted. Tara was
great to work with for all of the office coordination.
Both inspections were done extremely thorough and detailed. The final
and quot;walkthruand quot; was done on their tablet computers with all photos from the
various areas, such as the roof and other hard to get to places. The
inspection report that we received at the end had great photos, details,
instructions and was 79 pages long.

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Jeff Longaker from Inspection Services Northwest Inc. did an exceptional job documenting and photographing the home inspection report for a home purchase. The inspection took 3 hours and the report was 75 pages. Deficiencies were photographed and recommendations for necessary repairs were specific.

I am very satisfied. They were available on short notice and did a thorough job. The pictures are very helpful as it saves a step when going to find contractors.

There was an error in the report that I noticed. The inspector noted in the report that the water heater had reached the end of its life but rated it and quot;goodand quot; on their sliding bar rating system. I contacted Wade to have this corrected and he fixed the error in the report in warp speed.
I am however, extremely disappointed with the thermal inspection. One of the main reasons my husband and I selected Inspection Services Northwest was that this company can do a thermal inspection on the home. According to the http://inspectionservicesnorthwest.com/ website, a thermal inspection is included in the cost of a residential inspection. On the company website there are a lot of thermographs compared to regular pictures. Our final report doesn't even mention that a thermal inspection took place or that nothing was found using thermography. It would have been nice to see thermographs of the typical areas (roof, bathrooms, windows) to ensure the thermal inspection was completed and that nothing was found. With all the thermographs shown the website, it was my expectation to see at least one if not more in our final report.
I emailed Wade about the thermal inspection and this was his reply: and quot;The camera scans the house as the inspector does the general inspection. If no issues are found with the infrared, as was the case on your new home, no infrared images are captured or put in the report. If the inspector had found something like an active roof leak they would have included the thermograph and digital photo together in the report.and quot;
The home is new to us, but we didn't buy a and quot;newand quot; home. I am skeptical that a thermal inspection didn't find one single thing.
I emailed Wade back and asked and quot;Is it possible to get the thermographs? The inspector noted in the report that there are missing seals at windows and an active leak under both bathrooms in this older home. I expected the report to show a thermograph, but there weren't any included in the report to show water migration.and quot;
Wade replied and quot;The camera does not record the image unless we find a problem and take a thermographic image. All of the issues you note were found with the visual inspection not with the thermal imaging scan therefore no scan was taken. and quot;
I would recommend that if you select Inspection Services Northwest for a home inspection, have a more lengthy chat about the thermal inspection and process so that you are not left disappointed as I was.

They came early to the appointment and actually started reviewing from the street. The inspector did a full inspection from the roof and rafters in the attic to the crawl space under the house and was able to show us and explain items that would be sited on their detailed report. He also had infra-red tecnology and was able to show us what was even behind the walls! The inspector was professional, easy to understand, efficient and very helpful. We felt very comfortable and assured after this inspection.