Residential Buyers Home Inspections
Buying a new home is the biggest investment we make, and its a decision that will affect us for years to come. The process can be extremely stressful, confusing, and fraught with risks. A professional inspection will reduce your risk, making the entire home buying process easier and less stressful. My goal is to help you in this process because customer service is my highest priority!
The Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) has placed minimum inspection requirements for the home inspection. These requirements are specified in the Standards of Practice located on the TREC WEB site. The link on my Home Page will take you there.
View images of problems that we have uncovered during a thorough home inspection.
I am licensed by the Texas Real Estate Commission, a member of the Independent Home Inspectors of North America. I am also certified under the Texas V.I.P. insurance program and certified to perform HUD/FHA inspections.
Full, In-depth Inspection
You deserve more than the minimum! I perform an extensive, full inspection to help identify those major issues that can cost you large amounts of time and money to correct later. Because it is not possible to determine how much time each inspection will take, I will only schedule two inspections per day. This allows me to provide you with all of the necessary time and attention you deserve.
Personalized Level of Inspection
Some clients already possess specific, in depth knowledge of parts of a home. They may already have inspected these themselves and are quite satisfied. Although we recommend a second inspection for all systems we fully understand if this is not desired. For those clients we offer specialized pricing based on their inspection requests.
YOU JUST CAN’T GET THIS LEVEL OF SERVICE ANYWHERE ELSE!
Please call us so that we may discuss your needs, expectations and my cost of services.
I accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, E-check and even Pay Pal.
Additional precautions that buyers should take (or make sure that their agents take) before buying a home, especially a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) home include:
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Secure a seller's permission to buy what's known as a "C.L.U.E. report". This is a five-year insurance claims history of a particular property. C.L.U.E. stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange. A C.L.U.E. report is similar to a credit report, but with insurance-claims data. The reports require seller permission, but cost only $10 or so, and are available online from a company called Choice Trust.C.L.U.E. reports will reveal any claims that sellers haven't mentioned. But, equally important, they will help buyers who have become owners. Many buyers purchase a one-year initial insurance policy when closing on a home. Most insurers will, at renewal, look at a C.L.U.E. report to evaluate recalibrating rates and coverage.
If a C.L.U.E. report wasn't used initially owners may get a rude awakening upon learning their own, or their home's, insurance history is damaging. Insurers can cancel on you if you don't get a good C.L.U.E. report! Click to find out more.
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Get a competitive market analysis (CMA) for the neighborhood where the home is located. Real estate agents, even if not involved in the transaction, may be willing to provide them. This is a document that outlines selling prices on homes of varying sizes in different neighborhoods.
Separately, this company will, for a small fee, sell property-value data gathered from tax assessors' offices, at either the street address or zip code level.
If you can, try to research recent FSBO sales in your neighborhood. A CMA will only represent MLS data, that is, data on homes sold by agents, which exclude homes sold by owners; so "it's not the whole picture."
- Hire a "vicious" home inspector to check over the house from top to bottom. Many sellers aren't lying to buyers when they don't disclose problems in their home, many times they just don't know or tell the extent of a problem.