As things progress with the Covid-19 pandemic there are more and more businesses that are having to shut down. As of last week, realtors are no longer able to show homes in person. However, they can do virtual home showings. This will help to keep the housing market afloat. Buying a home without a walk-through may not be ideal. But there is not much you can do if you’re short on time and you have to make a move. With that in mind, there is one way you can make sure that you’re making a good buying decision. Home inspectors are still able to do their job as they normally would with the exception that no one is able to accompany them on the inspection. How will a home inspection help you to make a good decision on whether to buy a certain home or not?
Strouse Home Inspections is unique when it comes to how we do inspections and reports. We are a company that works for the buyer, not a realtor. We are a company that wants to help the client make a good decision for you and your family. Our inspection reports are very thorough. There are several factors when it comes to an inspection report, more than 1100, if we were counting, and we are. That is how many items are on our list to find and inspect. You can find a list of all the things we look for on our Home Inspection Checklist page. Regardless of what we are looking at, we make sure to take a lot of pictures to give you a detailed description of the inspection item.
Included in each report are not only pictures but videos as well. We have all the needed tools to be able to do a full inspection from the roof to the basement, from the siding to the kitchen. When buying a house, you usually are there at the inspection, but for several reasons, that may not always be the case. So, we take the extra step of taking more pictures and videos to identify all gas and water shut-offs, how to change the furnace filter, and other maintenance or unusual aspects of the house to help get to know your home a little quicker and easier. Additionally, we will do a Zoom video meeting before we leave the property to review specific inspection items, allowing us to show you items of concern without having to be onsite.
We will complete the report and send it to you by 9am the next morning. If desired, we can schedule a video conference call to go over it with you. The report will be 20 – 30 pages in length. You will find at the end a summary to help narrow some of the major concerns down for you. But you will want to review the entire report to make sure that items that you find important can be shared with your broker to use in the negotiation or for you to add to your list of to-dos’. As owner of the company, I perform the inspection and I will do the review, if needed.
An important aspect of our included services are free re-inspections. If an item we called out in the inspection is repaired or fixed by the seller, we will come out and re-inspect that item for free. It is part of our service that we feel helps give you piece of mind.
Our goal is to give you and your family the information you need to make a good financial decision when buying a new house. You might not be able to do a walk-through like you want but you can make sure that you’re getting a home inspection that is thorough, top to bottom and inside out. Give us a call today if you need a home inspection!
And, I will see you at the inspection, or in this case, on the video at the inspection.
Jeremy
By Strouse Home Inspections 4-20-2020
