A standard home inspection reveals both major and minor defects about the house recently bound by a purchase agreement, helping the buyer determine (intelligently and objectively) whether or not to terminate the deal and thus gain peace of mind. Likewise, a home re-inspection, a kind of follow-up examination, enables an informed decision and brings peace of mind. The follow-up occurs if and only if the buyer renegotiates the contract requesting the seller to complete specific repairs and wants to verify that the repairs are proper.

Compare the main home inspection to a mechanic checking out a used car one is considering buying. The mechanic, not having an interest in the transaction, gives his unbiased opinion about the economic sense of the purchase. Now, should the mechanic recommend specific repairs be done first, and the seller has the work done, the buyer might ask to have his mechanic inspect it again. This return trip is thus comparable to the home re-inspection. It is not mandatory and the buyer has to use his judgment about scheduling this verification inspection, depending on how critical the nature of the repair, how self-confident the buyer is in his own assessment, and how much he trusts the seller. Again, it\’s a matter of peace of mind.

To avoid having to pay two full fees, the same home inspector should conduct both the inspection and re-inspection. (A second inspector would also have to learn everything the first inspector already knows.) However, being a generalist, he often has to recommend more evaluation and correction by specialists, and yet he needs to be able to recognize problems when he sees them and to know what they should look like after being fixed. Hence it is important to select a home inspector wisely, to find someone with integrity and expertise.

Sometimes the inspector is a specialist in one area or another, and he might possess all the qualifications, including licensing, to repair some defects that turn up during his inspection. But even if this is the case, codes of ethics prohibit him from recommending himself to do the repair work in that it creates a conflict of interest.

The home re-inspection carries a certain level of risk with it. The inspector is limited by what he can see. The seller chooses the contractor to do repairs, and his definition of \”qualified\” may differ from the inspector\’s. Intentionally or ignorantly, the contractor may fix a problem on the surface and in appearance only, leaving the root of the problem uncorrected. In such a case, the home inspector, who doesn\’t perform invasive testing, cannot tell a fake repair from a genuine one. So, for his own protection, he often demands that the seller provide some form of proof that a qualified professional was engaged before he will sign off on the repair.

The home re-inspection fee varies from inspector to inspector. Some charge a reduced rate (like one-third) for the service, while others do it for free. Different philosophies and interpretations of what constitutes conflict of interest give rise to the discrepancy. But the important thing is to find a quality home inspector; the re-inspection fee is secondary. In the end, what one is paying for is peace of mind.

John W. Gordon is a licensed home inspector operating his Dr. Inspector business out of Bellingham, Washington. John, thorough and caring, charges a fair and competitive home inspection cost and produces a comprehensive home inspection report. Visit his website, http://www.HomeInspectionWA.net.

John W. Gordon is a licensed home inspector operating his Dr. Inspector business out of Bellingham, Washington. John, thorough and caring, charges a fair and competitive inspection cost and produces a comprehensive home inspection report. Visit his website, http://www.HomeInspectionWA.net.

Author Bio: John W. Gordon is a licensed home inspector operating his Dr. Inspector business out of Bellingham, Washington. John, thorough and caring, charges a fair and competitive home inspection cost and produces a comprehensive home inspection report. Visit his website, http://www.HomeInspectionWA.net.

Category: Real Estate
Keywords: home inspection, home inspector, home re-inspection, inspection cost, inspection report