There are two different organizations which are good in training and continually educating those who are looking to become or are home inspectors. One is ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) the other NACHI (National Association of Certified Home Inspectors). When hiring or having an inspector refered, asking the inspector you hire if they are members in good standing of either of these two organizations is a good start. At least they have gone through coursework and comprehensive testing via the agencies they belong to, in obtaining their organization certifications as home inspectors. I read a book years back that had pointed out several forms of genius categories. Not only the “verbal linguistic” form that most guage genius by. Another way this book defined genuis was, “The ability to make finer distinctions.” Home Inspection is one of the only areas that a person in Colorado IS NOT required to pass a state administered license test to be a home inspector. People get into the business of home inspection from areas not even remotely connected to the building trades, or they’ve done a little handy man work, and that is the extent of their knowledge. I was in the building trades for over 25 years and worked in every aspect of the trades. I was fortunate to apprentice in each trade associated with construction, with highly skilled craftsman in thier respective disciplines and who were very detail oriented. (Old School) 

I posed this question to my instructor when getting my Real Estate Brokers license: “Anyone looking to become a home inspector, if they had little or no prior construction experience, would need to apprentice in every single trade in the industry a minimum of at least an 18 months so they would actually understand what they are looking at and can explain any potential issues if there are any, to their clients.” Her reply was, “No one would make any money in that business if it were done that way.” I believe it would make for much better, greater accountability in building standards and quality of workmanship overall. With exception to the “Do It Yourself” types who don’t always make the best decisions when repairing things and don’t seek expert advise.

It’s thought that home inspectors who are too thorough because what they find might potentially, “kill a deal.” My thoughts on this are the exact opposite. I’d rather have my clients, both buyers and sellers, know everything possible, including some things that might not get disclosed or overlooked or were forgotten to be added in the Sellers Property Disclosure. On the sellers side, prior to listing, it minimizes any surprises that might arise. It gives sellers a chance to address and repair any issues which would be a health or safety concern. On the buyers side, if they are health, safety or structural issues, we would address any issues in the Inspection Objection and hope the owner addresses them in good faith. In boom times as we are experiencing now, there are not enough municipal building inspectors to cover all the building projects going on. They are overworked. Some volume builders, who only offer a one year warranty, homes are built so quickly, the buyers have an increased potential risk to have to pay for major repairs, after that one year period expires. Many things can get missed or over looked when homes are built at such a rapid pace. Classic examples are some homes built in boom times between 1971-78, 1986-89 and the mid 1990’s through 2005, when we experienced the biggest surge in home building during the days of the sub prime loan markets nationwide. I did a lot of repair work on these types of homes the years I spent in construction.

The photo top left shows a broken main sewer line in a crawl space. This was on a property I viewed shortly before I had to fly back home. My offer was accepted and since I did not have the time to personally inspect the home before closing, December 2007, we relied on the referal our broker gave us. Were in the process of turning over my business I sold before moving to Fort Collins. The inspector never went into the crawl space based on the report I received. He only stuck his head through the hole. If he’d done a thorough inspection, this would of been caught and repaired before closing. I started to smell sewer gas by March and went to investigate. I found the cracked pipe, older pieces of ABS pipe which had looked to been broken before this one. What I found was that the repair(s) were never done properly. The pipes were forced into place, causing shear tension because horizontal pipe was too short, which in turn, caused the pipe to crack. I was able to realign everything properly, add a piece to align it properly and repair the broken section correctly. Photo below. We are all human, we all make mistakes from time to time. But I believe being thorough can minimize any stressful situations which could be avoided if the job is done well from the start.