Questions to ask home inspector include: How long have you been performing home inspections? While many home inspectors just starting out in the home inspection business can claim they went to a state mandated school and have a license home buyers should think back to the day after they got their drivers license and remember a license is just the minimum legal qualification to do something. Searching hard for a home inspector with a decade or more of home inspection experience will prove difficult as most home inspectors quit long before then. Those home buyers who search around and find a home inspector with 15 or more years of experience are even more lucky.

Why are years of experience necessary to inspect a home: Like any other craft home inspectors who have been in the business for ten or even fifteen years have learned the hard way what consumers expect. Like it or not over the years experienced home inspectors have a sense of what home buyers cover up, how they cover it up and how they act when things are not what they appear. That new basement carpet, fresh basement paint, clean basement floor with no dust, neat basement storage 6″ off the floor or on shelves and other signs tell an experienced home inspector look hard for signs of water leakage, because he or she knows they are likely to be there.

Home inspection testimonials are provided on a select few home inspector web sites. Why? Because few home inspectors have built up a list of a thousand or so comments placed by clients over the past few years that they are willing to share with potential clients. Fewer home inspection companies share all comments customers make with all potential new customers because they may not result in increased business. Asking a home inspector for a list of client comments is reasonable and a good way to help narrow down the list of qualified home inspectors.

During each eight hour shift a town code inspector may have five hours on the road. The other 3 hours is spent on the phone, setting up schedules, reviewing plans, dealing with mountains of paper work and other administrative tasks.

Here is a question for you:

When municipal inspector are then given a 7 code inspections plus 3 full new home inspections to perform in one day how much time does he or she have at each job site to go through his or her new home inspection checklist?

Why don’t municipalities perform more thorough inspections of new homes?

Well there are many reasons. Budget cuts have cut back on the staffing at many municipal building departments. Where there was once a larger staff to inspect there is a smaller staff. Only a small segment of time is devoted to new home inspections

Frequently after new home buyers move into the home they discover the reality – in the vast majority of cases municipalities only perform the minimal new home inspections they are required to perform.

10 inspections / 5 hours = 1/2 per inspection. If he or she can hit the hyper space button to move between inspections. New home inspections are more difficult because when town inspectors get there they may not have paved roads and or sidewalks. Subtract out time spent in traffic, filling out forms on jobs, waiting for people to answer door bells, cleaning off dirty shoes before entering the home, discussing problems with those on the job and walking to and from the car I think each municipal inspector is lucky they have any time at all left to actually fill out the new home inspection checklist.

In many municipalities inspectors are assigned many more than ten inspections a day. Think of your town and how long it takes you to get from one place to another. Imagine how long it must take the inspectors to plot a route through town to each and every inspection and find ten different homes a day. New home inspections are sometimes on streets without signs and or house numbers. Now to toss a few monkey wrenches into the day such as fires and other disasters they are called on to provide expertise, plus a few crisis such as the mayor calling to find out why so and so failed an inspection and how come so and so passed (yes it happens).

While many or most municipal inspectors try their best to inspect new homes and renovated homes to the best of their ability factors beyond their control make it difficult or impossible to provide the most thorough inspections they would like.

While many home buyers are under the impression the should not worry because the town approved it, there is seldom the degree of inspection provided the buyer thinks. Upon resale in New Jersey most municipalities do not check to determine if permits were obtained for all the work performed on the home since it last changed hands. Some towns will check for open permits but that is about it. If a buyer wants to know if permits and municipal approvals were obtained for all work performed on the home it is the buyers job to do that research on their own.

Buyers are cautioned if work was recently performed on a home like new kitchens, new bathrooms or renovations they must check to determine if the real estate taxes were updated. A favorite trick is to completely renovate a home and put in on the market quickly, before the real estate tax increase hits the books. New home buyers are then surprised by the new tax bill when they can least afford it.

Home buyers who hire independent home inspectors are much better off because they get the undivided attention of a qualified and experienced home inspector for a couple of hours.