Preparing For the Home Inspection

As a professional home inspector, who has to try to make my way around seller’s houses without things falling on my head or being broken, I can honestly say that I wish that sellers knew more about what to inspect at a home inspection. A home inspector is not there to critique housekeeping — unless it is really bad housekeeping. Minor details like that will be unreported in most cases. A home inspector, also, is not there to look for minor blemishes on the interior paint or to use a torpedo level to straighten the wall hangings. Some sellers expect an inspector to breeze through the inside of the house in an hour and to not look at much else. Fat chance!

The professional home inspector is hired to find the big issues. And, to achieve that goal, the inspector will need access to the outside of the home, and the perimeter of the property, to view siding and components. The inspector will, in most cases, need to go up on the roof and go inside the attic access. The inspector needs to remove the covers on the furnace and the main electric panel and any electric sub-panels. There must be a view of, and access to, the water heater. An inspector will go inside various rooms so a seller locking a dog in a room is problematic for the inspector who may be held accountable for things that he or she was not allowed to view. The inspector needs to be able to look under all sinks (beware what personal belongings are readily visible) and he or she will look in fireplaces and wood stoves. It is essential that the inspector must be able to go into any crawl space or basement areas to look for signs of damage or structural issues. If there is an attached garage, on premises, then the inspector needs full access to that area as well.

The inspector is not a furniture mover, so having a dozen boxes under the attic hatch, or firewood stacked in front of the crawl space door, will not help the process nor speed-up the inspection. In case someone was to think that an inspector is lazy, for not moving belongings, that is not the crux of the matter: When belongings or furniture are moved around, that can lead to breakage and the inspector does not want to break the seller’s personal items or damage the property. The job of being an inspector is hard enough to begin with, without resorting to the blame game and assorted bad feelings.

It would be helpful if seller’s agents would let their sellers know what is expected of them, and their house, at the time of a home inspection. A brief checklist, and overview, that I prepared is below.

Crawl space access: Find out where the hatch is located. It might be concealed, or even under a carpet in a closet. It must be accessible.

Attic access: Make sure that it is accessible and that an inspector can get a ladder up into it without damaging belongings.

Electric panels: Find out where they are located and see to it that there is sufficient room so the inspector is able to remove the covers on all panels.

Water heater: Find out where it is located and make sure it is accessible.

Furnace, A/C, etc: The inspector needs to be able to view the components and remove covers.

Sinks: They must be accessible so the inspector can view drains, traps, piping and look for leaks.

Utilities: If a buyer expects a detailed inspection, then electricity, water and, as applicable, gas must be in-service at the time of the inspection. In a related matter, if the main water shut-off is concealed, such as in a closet obscured by storage, tell the inspector where it is located.

Steven L. Smith, President of King of the House, Inc home inspection is Washington state licensed home inspector #207 and a licensed structural pest inspector in Bellingham WA. Smith is the program coordinator for the college level home inspection training program at Bellingham Technical College and he was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Washington state home inspector licensing advisory board.

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