I recently received a phone call from a San Fernando Vally Real Estate agent. This agent told me their clients had already had a home inspection, but the clients still had questions about the house. Apparently it was determined the house needed a new roof. And during the inspection, what was thought to be water damage in the ceiling was noted.
The question remained was if there sitting water in the ceiling due to the recent rains. I asked if the inspector looked in the attic, and the agent told me there was no attic or else the termite guy would have gone in there.
So this agent was faced with closing escrow with an incomplete home inspection and unhappy clients, or hiring me to do another inspection to determine what the first inspector did not look at.
Had they originally hired a Certified Professional Inspector who uses a high quality Thermal Imaging and a moisture meter, like IM Home Inspections, then the inspector would have used the Thermal Imaging camera to look for unusual temperature patterns in the ceiling, and used a moisture meter to determine if any anomalies were due to moisture.
The moral of the story is if you do not hire the right inspector who has the right tools, you end up with a questions, an incomplete inspection and unhappy home buyers.
Inspect it once, and inspect it right.
If you hire a home inspector that is not using a high quality Thermal Imaging camera and a moisture meter, then your are getting an incomplete inspection.
And a side note, it also struck me that the agent said the termite guy would have gone in the attic, and not the home inspector. At IM Home Inspections, I always check the attic.