Residential Inspections

A home inspection is one of the most critical steps in the exciting process of buying a home. After all, you deserve to know about any potential issues with your home before you finalize a purchase. Here’s a look at why we recommend residential home inspections and a few other services, and what these inspections cover.

The cost of an inspection is tiny when compared with the cost of your home purchase, but it could be the wisest money you ever spend. Buyers who skip their inspections risk a number of problems:

Being surprised if a major repair or maintenance need crops up.
Losing the opportunity to negotiate a newer, fairer price for the home in light of issues that the inspection uncovers.
Losing the chance to ask the current homeowners to do repairs so the buyers can move into the home with less stress.

If an inspection uncovers serious issues, you may need to back out of the purchase altogether. That’s still better than getting stuck with a house that keeps having costly problems. Inspections give you the information you need to make educated decisions:

Even new, shiny-looking homes can have serious flaws.
An inspection gives you the heads-up about potentially expensive problems that could occur even many years later.
An inspection report from Every Detail Matters is broken down into key, easily understood areas: Major Concerns, Safety Issues, Repair Items, and Items to Monitor. We also provide color photos of problematic areas.

A standard home inspection is a visual assessment from the top to bottom of a home (roof to the foundation). It also includes the home’s systems such as plumbing, heating, air conditioning and electrical. We also look at walls, floors, ceilings, visible insulation, the foundation, and several other areas. A standard inspection is a great start; we also recommend that homebuyers get radon testing, termite inspection, and water testing:

Radon can cause cancer. Uranium decays naturally and creates the gas radon, which moves from the soil up into a home. Homes trap radon, and it builds up. Fortunately, radon reduction systems are affordable and can reduce the levels of radon in a home by as much as 99%. Because the gas is tasteless, odorless and invisible to humans, radon testing is the only way to know if you have an issue.
Termite damage can be costly. A termite inspection checks for areas of concern such as open access points. It outlines any existing damage and infested areas along with areas likely to become infested.
Water testing is definitely needed if a well supplies water to the home. The tests check for water hardness and for arsenic, lead, cadmium and other metals. If the home has a septic tank, it needs to be examined too.