What's a Maintenance Inspection:A maintenance inspection is essentially the same as a standard home inspection, but the inspection is done for the current owner. Most of these homeowners have been in their homes for over five years, and they may or may not have had their home inspected at the time they purchased it. Homeowner maintenance inspections are becoming more and more popular in Canada. About a month ago I had a week where I did more homeowner maintenance inspections, then real-estate transactions. |
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That's not to say that the real estate market is slow; sales are certainly up. It's just that most purchase agreements give home buyers five business days to get their new home inspected. Because of that, we typically don't schedule any real-estate transaction inspections out past five business days, but when it's a homeowner maintenance inspection, most people don't mind waiting a week or two to get the home maintenance inspection done.
Another difference between a buyers inspection and a homeowner maintenance inspection is that we sometimes go a little " Mike Holmes" on the house by cutting into stuff or taking stuff apart that we wouldn't normally do for a traditional home inspection. While a traditional buyers inspection is subject to a purchase agreement with standard language saying it's a non-invasive inspection, we don't have those kinds of limitations with a maintenance inspection. Usually, the homeowner is right there with me for the maintenance inspection. If I'm concerned about water intrusion below that basement cabinet in the corner, I'll ask the owner if I can drill a hole in the back of the cabinet and stick a borescope in there to check it out.
I think most home inspectors like to get to the bottom of stuff like this, and homeowners appreciate the extra work involved to get to the bottom of questions.
Win-win.
Everyone's happy and we all sleep better at night.
Why get a Maintenance Inspection?
Think of a maintenance inspection as a checkup visit to the doctor or dentist that need only happen every three to five years or so. A maintenance inspection will help to prioritize a home improvement list, and to hopefully find out about small problems before they turn into big ones. In some cases, a maintenance inspection will reveal something that was thought to be a small problem but, has already turned into a big one.
A maintenance inspection also gives homeowners a chance to have a professional home inspector answer questions with a completely unbiased viewpoint.
- Is it normal for the lights to dim like this when the AC turns on?
- Is my deck still safe?
- Can I leave that buried fuel oil tank in the yard when I sell?
- My roofer said the roof should be replaced; does it really need replacement this year, or can it wait?
- Should I invest in new windows?
- Would more insulation in the attic save me money?
The home inspector isn't there to sell anything. We're just going to give unbiased, accurate opinion using the years of knowledge we have obtained inspecting homes just like yours. If we can save you money or find ways for you our client to avoid unnecessary repairs bills we will feel that we’ve done a good job.
What about a single item inspections?
When someone has a specific problem with their house that they want to get an opinion on, or they just have a few issues that they want to have attended to, that's what a single item inspection is for. We do a lot of these, but the price of a troubleshooting inspection for a particular concern is typically about 1/3 the price of a full inspection. In most cases, we end up doing a full inspection because a homeowner is dealing with a persistent problem that nobody can get to the bottom of. The homeowner has several things that need to be looked at by various professionals and this is the owner's chance to get it all done at once.
At most single item inspections, we end up seeing a number of other major concerns that jump out at us:
Does the owner know their downspouts drain right against the house?
Does the owner know they're missing kick-out flashing and water is probably pouring into the wall behind the siding every time it rains?
Does the owner know their dryer vent is clogged and creating a fire hazard?
We usually try to keep our mouth shut unless it's a safety issue and even then, it needs to be brought up diplomatically. A homeowner's home is their castle and sometimes it's even their baby and no one likes to have their castle or baby messed with.
If you have a persistent problem with your home that you want to get to the bottom of, you want help prioritizing repairs, you'd like to know the overall condition of your house or you'd like to get an unbiased opinion on home improvements, contact a us to conduct a maintenance inspection.