Home Inspectors in the Indianapolis (mortgage, lawyer, insurance)

[Southside Shrek]

I just wonder how many of you have used a home inspector in and around the Indianapolis area. When I looked at the kind of printed agreement they want their customers/prospective buyers to sign at the time of inspection, I almost went through the ceiling. First, their agreement is loaded with a bunch of disclaimers and exculpatory language making it virtually impossible for the Buyers to sue the home inspector if he overlooks a serious defect which he should have discovered and noted in his inspection report. Second, the agreement calls for arbitration in the event of an unresolved dispute between the Buyer/customer and inspector. The inpsector is well protected and insulated against being sued for damages in the event he makes a negligent error or omission.


the bottom line is that prospective Buyers are paying large fees in the neighborhood of $500 and more to home inspectors and not really having any meaningful recourse in the event the inspector negligently overlooks a costly defect in the home. To me it's a joke and rip off.

[sweetana3]

We used one when we bought our 1939 house because of its age and varied changes. We both stood with him for the whole inspection and peppered him with questions on age, anticipated repairs, what to do, when it needed to be done, watched him check all the electrical work (he found a bad outlet while testing the first one), told us about box not being to code, found the turn off switches, warned us about some foundation issues. It was well worth the cost. Best info he gave us was about the roof.

Did he find everything, no. Paint hid some rotten wood on the breezeway so we had the walls/windows replaced. But we were very happy with his report.

It depends on how involved you are and how much you know about house components.

[Southside Shrek]

Sweetana
if a Buyer has to be an expert contractor/builder to oversee his home inspector, then that's pretty sad for the Buyer.

it is my belief based on what I've seen that many home inspectors simply go through the motions and charge a hefty fee for doing so. Read all the disclaimer language in their standard form agreement they want you to sign as Buyer and you'll see what I mean. They assume no liability or responsibility for anything no matter how serious of a defect it may be that the home inspector carelessly overlooks.

this home inspector didn't even get up onto the roof. He said it was 'too dangerous' and that a roofing man with safety equipment needed to inspect it. I ask this: why would a home inspector agree to inspect a 2 story home and charge a Buyer a fee if he can't even fully inspect it by getting up onto the roof?

he didn't even check the heat exchangers in the furnaces. He said a furnace expert needs to be called in. The same thing with respect to the plumbing and electrical.

who needs to pay a home inspector if he excludes much of the heating, air conditioning, mechanical, electrical and structural components of the home?

[billman5000]

Home inspection contracts have been written to exclude damages beyond the cost of the inspection, for at least 25 years in my experience. nayone concerned about this has been living in a cave. A good home inspector is well worth the money, what you're seeking is an insurance policy against hidden problems.

[Southside Shrek]

billman5000
Home inspectors first started taking off up here back in the 1990's. I used a home inspector within the past 10 years in Tippecanoe County and he didn't attempt to foist that kind of a disclaimer ('waiver of all liability') contract on a customer/buyer.

would you go to a surgeon for a heart operation who required you to sign a waiver and release of all liability agreement before he did your heart surgery? Maybe you would.

[domergurl]

SS, I'm with you on the home inspection issue. You pay a ton of money and they have no responsibility whatsoever for the checks they make. I'm inclined to hire separate experts (HVAC/electrician/roofer) next time because, honestly, home inspectors don't do anything more than just a glorified walkthrough. And be careful, some home inspectors will say "mold like substance", not mold per se ... we had to go through that and ended up paying a mold remediator almost 1K for mold that didn't go any further than a 12X12 piece of sheet rock in the garage, but since the inspector deemed us "mold like", it caused us to have to pay more than what we should have. Of course, we had no recourse from their inspector.

[Southside Shrek]

Domergurl
I am never going to allow another home inspector to check out a home I am interested in.....never. Most of them get their business through realtors and that's where their allegiance is, i.e., to realtors as a deal facilitator.

[domergurl]

Bingo! You are better off hiring your own specialists.

[ImGibby]

I'm going to attempt to address the issues discussed here in 1 reply.... In my experience, most compaints and probelms with Home Inspectors are largely due to "Unrealistic Expectations". People typically expect the Home Inspector to ELIMINATE their risk of owning a house...those people need a reality check.... owning a house requires maintenance...wether it is new construction or 100 yrs old. Things WILL stop working, and things WILL need to be maintained. The job of an Inspector is to help REDUCE the risk and alert you to any MAJOR defects that might be present AT THE TIME OF INSPECTION. I always define MAJOR as 1.)Anything that could potentially cost you thousands of dollars OR 2.) Anything that is a safety / habitability issue. Second to that, people expect Inspectors to have a crystal ball and predict the future...to be able to tell them "Your roof will beign to leak in 18 months" or "Your furnace will stop working in 2 yrs". An Inspector can only tell you whether or not the system or component is performing its INTENDED funtcion AT THE TIME OF INSPECTION and estimate it's age as well as the avg. life expectancy. It is not a WARRANTY, as mechanical equipment is prone to failure at any time, and leaks may develop at any time, including the day AFTER the inspection. It is your job to use the information an Inspector gives to you to make your own informed decision. A home inspection is defined as a 'Limited Visual Inspection"...which means we can only inspect what we can get to and see. We are not going to disassemble the house / components or use destructive methods to do our inspection. Of course you are going to find things that the Inspector did not when the house is vacant or when you move in and start living in the house and using things on a regular basis, or when you start tearing things apart to remodel...an Inspector is only in the house for 2-3 hrs avg (A good Inspector Anyway). As far as not getting on the roof....there is no requirement to get on a roof. If you can see the roof from the ground, you are going to see if there are any problems with loose / missing shingles or if the roof is sagging. I can even tell you, in most cases, how many layers of shingles are on the roof without climbing up there. And the attic is going to tell you more about your roof than physically walking the roof. The primary function of the roof is to shed water...if it is failing, you are going to see water stains in the attic before you see it looking at the shingles. I get on any and every roof that I can safely do so...but that is purely a judgement call on the individual inspector, and not walking a roof has never resulted in a complaint call from any inspection I have ever done...for some reason seeing a guy climb a ladder and get on the roof gives people a warm fuzzy feeling, and most the time, thats the only reason I go on a roof....beause I know it is expected...but my visual from the ground and in the attic is typically sufficient for any "roof inspection". Heat exchangers? Yes they are also excluded....why? You can not get to the heat exchanger without disasembling the furnace....typically only 5% of the heat exchanger is visible without tearing the furnace apart. If a furnace is existing beyond its avg life expectancy, I always recommend having it proffesionaly and fully evaluated as well, just to be safe. Otherwise, you can typicall spot a problem with a cracked heat exchanger by observing the flame pattern, which IS part of the LIMITED VISUAL inspection. As far as plumbing and electrical, if the Inspector found problems, then he should have recommend further evalaution by the appropriate experts. If not, then he was just a scardy cat inspector practicing the CYA (Cover Your A**) approach inspecting, in which case you have every right to question his abilities. Most Inspectors DO get most of their business from realtors, and this CAN certainly be a problem, as with any business where referrals are given. Inspectors are not allowed to give kick backs or incentives for realtors for reffering them. Additionally, Realtors are not supposed to refer just ONE inspector...instead they are to give a list of inspectors to the client that they have worked with, they know to reputable, and have not had any issue with, and let the cllient choose from that list. Relators work with inspectors all the time, they know the good ones form the bad ones, so it can be benneficial to consult with your realtor about finding an Inspector, but there is always the risk of unethical business practices here. I will be the first to tell you there are a lot of Inspectos that should not be Inspectors, and if you open the yellow pages and throw a dart to select one, you probablly are not going to be happy with what you get....if you go with the lowest priced inspector, you probably are not going to be happy with what you get. (BTW...lower price usually = less time in the house....so they can do more inspections in a day, and still make as much in a day as their competitors who charge more and spend more time.....but, hey, at least you have choices right?) A Home Inspectors first obligation and priority should be TO THE HOUSE....the client 2nd, and the Realtor 3rd. Bet you thought the client shoud be first priority, huh? If a realtor wants me to deviate fromt the way I typically do things, I do not wish to continue to work with them, no matter how much work they send me. And finally the contracts....how can you not expect some sort of protection in this sue happy society that we live in? Especially on something as big of a purchase as a house? That is most peoples biggest purchase, and as you can see, "Unrealistic Expectations" of a home inspection are abundant. The contract is intended to inform you of what the inspection IS and what it IS not. Keep in mind that in most cases this improtant part of doing business was written by a lawyer, therefore was written to discourage would be plantiffs. Any reputable Inspection company will make right any MAJOR defect that was missed by an inspector, regardless of what the contract says. If not, any legitimate claim against an inspector would proabbly be won in court...a contract can not give someone the right to rip you off. Look a the State requirements for an inspection, or the Standards Of Practice for any affiliation group (ASHI - American Society of Home Inspectors ie.)...if your inspection was not performed to these standards, and as a result you ended up with w a MAJOR defect that was missed, that contract probably wont hold up in court or arbitration. It is not the "Bullet Proof Shield of Armor" you think it is, but it does protect the Inspector from being taken adavantage of. So you could certainly skip the Home Inspection Process if you think you know enough about a house and it's structural and mechanical systems and componetnts to do one yourself...or if you dont mind spending the extra $$$ and you prefer to pay in excess of $1,000 to have an Elcetrician, Plumber, Roofer, Foundation Specialist, Strucutral Engineer, Heating/Cooling contractor etc. to come out individualy, you can certainly do so. But the idea of having a home inspection is to hopefully save you time and money from having to contract all of these special trades from coming out. An inspectors job is not to tell you what exactly is wrong, how to fix it, or how much it will cost (Although I think a good inspector shoudl be able to go above and beyond the call of duty and verbally give you ideas of repair methods and costs, but is not in the job description). Their job is to identify problems that may be present and recommend the qualified professional to further evaluate / repair. That's It. And Im glad the comparison was made to Surgeons (in regards to the contract)....I like to the use the analogy that we are much like your family Dr....If you are not feeling well, you go to your family Dr., and if he thinks you need to see a specialist (cardioligist, neuroligist, etc.) he refers you to the appropriate specialist...your family Dr. is not a know all fix all resource....he is there to let you know if there are problems that need to be looked into further...just like your Home Inspector. One last note...if you still dont see the value in having a home inspection done, think of this.....the cost of your inspection is far less that your monthly mortgage payment will be....it is a fraction of the cost you are spending on your "investment" (percieved investment anyway, but that is a diffferent conversation)...sounds like a bargain to me. The inspection gives you an opportunity to renogotiate or back out of the deal if problems are discovered that you may not have known about. I suggest purcahsing a home warranty as well. A properly performed Home Inspection acombined with a Home Warranty can help offset the riskds asssociated with purchasing a new house. No one will eliminate the risk, but you do have options to help reduce the risk. So, before you hire an Inspector (as with anything), check their credintials, make sure that they are LICENSED, do your homework, know what to expect and what you are getting into, and realize that you get what you pay for. Don't expect to get a quality inspection / report for a budget price.

[domergurl]

After all the doo we have been going through, next time we will hire our own independent inspector, preferably from outside the area. That way, chances are that the inspector will be on your side and not the realtor's side.