home inspectors in sarasota (bank owned, sales, real estate)

[trueicetea]

Trueicetea (NJ), in process of buying a house in Sarasota.

Can somebody recommend one or more VERY thorough home inspector(s) in Sarasota, for an "as is" contract on a foreclosed home? Cost of inspection is secondary. I'd like somebody that covers everything: structure, roof, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, pool, mold, termite ...

And what should I pay particular attention to when selecting one, or during the inspection (I have been through inspections before, but Florida may have its particularities) ?

thanks all!

[Sunshine Rules]

First, congrats on finding a home in Sarasota.

You will find that home and pest inspections come under different state licensing, so you will need to find a separate pest company for the WDO (wood destroying organism) inspection. Harris Pest is a long time Sarasota company with a good reputation for doing WDOs.

Most of the home inspectors will include a general pool inspection for you, but they may suggest calling in someone that specializes in pools if there is something questionable for further evaluation.

As to home inspectors, up until 2011, the state of FL did not regulate or license home inspectors, other than the required county occupational license. Anyone could hang out a sign and become a home inspector.

The state of FL now requires home inspectors to take and pass course requirements and a state test. All home inspectors must now be licensed through the FL Department of Business & Professional Regulation.

Some home inspectors have reputations for doing more thorough inspections than others. Buyers should seek out qualified home inspectors with good credentials, experience and good references. One group you may want to check into is the American Society of Home Inspectors (also known as ASHI). This group has an in depth process to obtain full accreditation for it's members. You can read more on ASHI at American Society of Home Inspectors, ASHI

With one or two exceptions which have contractor and FABI (FL Association of Building Inspectors) credentials, the home inspectors that I recommend to my customers are members of ASHI that have several years or more of experience behind them. We are fortunate to have quite a few of those ASHI members in our area.

Some home inspectors offer mold testing (which is also now licensed through the state of FL) but you can also find a number of qualified companies to come in and take air samples for testing for you.

You didn't ask about this, but since you mentioned you are buying a foreclosure property, whenever I have a buyer purchasing a bank owned (REO) property, I recommend they hire their own local real estate attorney to review the title work before the closing, since the title company in a REO closing is typically working for the bank, not the buyer. There is a difference between an insurable title and a marketable title. It can be money well spent.

[leetchy2]

I recommend Alert Inspections (Barry Greer). Recently I made an offer on a bank-owned property. His inspection was so thorough (and he found so many things wrong with the home) that I backed out of the deal. The company does it all (mold, pest, pool, roof, etc) as well as wind mitigation which I highly recommend (could save you thousands on insurance). Alert is a member of ASHI.

[trueicetea]

Thanks all, good advice ... well, I was lucky to be able to back out of the deal even before getting to the inspection. The seller (bank itself or the listing agent) surprised me 4 hours before signing the contract, after we went back and forth and had agreed on a price ... they then disclosed a 4 months old termite report showing evidence/damages, and informed me that as a result that cannot be considered grounds for dropping of the contract, since now I know about the issue. very unprofessional either by the bank or the listing agent, I wonder if thats the case with most REOs. So far I only had this single REO mis-step, but I ran into other previous instances of unprofessional listing agents ... for example not countering at the requested deadline, but using my offer to solicit other offers, while delying me. Lucky enough, in that case also I backed up ... that house is still on the market, and now at a lower price than my initial offer.
So I had a couple of misfirings in the last 3 months, but I am not giving up quite yet.

[Sunshine Rules]

Sorry it didn't work out for you. REOs have asset managers that are assigned to oversee the selling of the bank owned property. These managers may be handling 200, 300 or more listings at a time, spread over 1 or more states. Their motivation is to meet monthly or quarterly goals. The listing agent often is handling a large volume of listings for that lender, which is part of their working agreement. In both cases, it can make buying a REO more challenging. There are some listing agents for REOs in our area that will not answer phone calls from agents at all, everything must be by email, and a couple that will not even answer emails - unless you have submitted an offer. To be fair, most REO listing agents have a professional team working with them and respond in a timely manner to both buyers agents and buyers. You seem to have come across a couple of the more challenging ones.

In FL, sellers of REO properties have no duty to provide a written seller property disclosure form. However, both the seller and listing agent are required to disclose material defects of which they have knowledge, as in a pest inspection report.

When you make an offer on a REO, the bank's asset manager, not the listing agent, makes the decision on how the offers are handled. When you make an offer on a bank owned listing, even if you are told your offer is being accepted, it is not binding until both buyer and the bank's representative have both signed and initialed the contract AND all riders and addendums. It sometimes takes days or even weeks for the bank to get a fully signed contract back to the buyer's agent. During that waiting period, other offers can come in. Each bank sets their own policy as to how additional offers will be handled - some banks will consider those additional offers, others do not allow the listing agent to submit offers once one has been "accepted." I don't know if that's what happened in your case.


When you do get an offer accepted by the bank on a REO property, the bank/seller will generate it's own addendums to the contract, which the buyer must accept without changes in order for the transaction to move forward. These addendums frequently alter the inspection period, modify the sellers warranties to reduce seller's liability, add mold or other environmental disclaimers (such as chinese drywall, lead paint, fuel oil or toxic substances of any kind), set monetary penalties for buyer's failure to close by a specific date (sometimes even if the seller is at fault for the delay) and frequently change deadlines within the contract. Often they include language that makes the buyer's deposit nonrefundable after the inspection period. Buyers are usually required to pay the FL documentary stamps on the sale even though those fees are seller expenses in a regular sale. There's typically a disclaimer that buyer is responsible for obtaining any HOA or condo docs at buyer's expense. Most have specific waivers of certain buyer rights, such as filing legal action against the bank for failure to close (specific performance). They also put language in that allows the seller, at seller's sole discretion, to extend the expiration date on the contract.

For all of the above reasons, it's a good idea to seek out your own real estate attorney that is familiar with REO sales to review the bank's addendums with you BEFORE you sign and accept the terms.



Perhaps, as the old saying goes, the 3rd try will be the charm for you.