Here are some of the resources available:
1. Home Inspection Video - See a home inspection!
2. Read an actual home inspection report.
3. Read/search Barry Stone's column, Inspector's In the House (below).
4. Send a question using the form to the right. ===>
5. If you are a Seller, get your own inspection before you put your home on the market.

California does not require any license to be a home inspector, so it is important for both home buyers and sellers to make sure that they hire an inspector who is a certified residential inspector and who carries errors and omissions insurance. To help you think through the selection of your home inspector, click here for our 10 Tips.

QUESTIONS/ANSWERS Click on any of these topics to read questions and answers by syndicated columnist Barry Stone.
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As a buyer, you can be present on the home inspection (and we really recommend it). Being there gives you a chance to ask questions, to see and discuss what Mark has found, and to ask other questions about your new home. Some of the areas inspected include: structure, heating and cooling, roof, electrical system, plumbing and fixtures, attic, basement and/or crawl space, foundation, gutters, insulation, interior and exterior walls, porches and decks, and the water heater and appliances.

A good inspector helps both buyers and sellers become aware of any defects that weren't already known. (If they had been known, they would have been disclosed.) Please note: Sellers have no obligation to repair any defects. Repair requests are just that--requests. However, if an unknown defect is a safety issue, violates the then-current building code, or affects functionality, many sellers will accommodate the request in one way or another. A good inspection helps to put all those issues on the table so that everyone is satisfied with the transaction.

For information about various topics, just click on any of the links to the left or run your own search! One of our 600+ articles is posted below.

THE ETHICS OF INSPECTOR REFFERALS
Inspector's in the House by Barry Stone, Certified Building Inspector

Dear Barry,
Before buying my home, I called a home inspector who was highly recommended. As it turned out, he was booked too far in advance, but he recommended another home inspector by name. I trusted this as a reliable referral. But since moving in, major problems with my plumbing and heating have been found, and now I'm told that the inspector I hired has only been in business a short time. To make things worse, I've learned that inspector #1 received a referral fee from inspector #2. Do I have any recourse?
Ellen

Dear Ellen,
Recourse may be not be attainable, but you can try. The starting point is to notify both inspectors of your dissatisfaction, but don't expect a miraculous response. There are, of course, legal avenues, but these can be costly and protracted. An attorney can advise you in this regard.

There is an implied understanding when a home inspector names an alternate. In affect, the home buyer is being told, "Here is someone whom I know to be fully qualified and accomplished, someone in whose hands your interests will be safe and well represented." If this presumption is compromised or violated, then the liability for substandard performance should bear as heavily on the one who made the recommendation as on the one who performed the inspection. Whether a court of law would hold to this position is debatable, but from an ethical standpoint, it is unquestionable.

Ethical standards, as recognized within the home inspection profession, are established and enforced by trade associations such as the American Society of Home Inspector (ASHI). If the inspector in question is a member of this or a similar organization, a complaint can be filed with the ethics committee of that association. In the end, they might sanction the inspector, but this is not likely to remedy your position.

Regardless of their ruling in the matter, home inspection referrals should be made without financial inducements or other dubious arrangements. Otherwise, they should not be made at all. For the inspector who recommends others, competence should be the overriding consideration.

Inspectors typically know which of their colleagues is most proficient. The professional capacity of home inspectors is directly proportional to field experience. This is true with rare exceptions and is common knowledge among home inspectors. It takes years of practice to cultivate the skills of forensic discovery. When an inspector who has attained a high level of competency recommends someone who has not, clarification should be made to the buyer. If the referral is honest, it might read: "I know an inspector you can call, but he's new to the business, and I'm not sure about the thoroughness of his work." But where referrals are served up as testimonials, when the true impetus is financial reward to the one making the recommendation, consumers have justifiable grounds for complaint. Who would not question the motives of such an arrangement?

In addition to ethical considerations, there is the matter of legal exposure. Liability is a central consideration within the home inspection business. Every experienced home inspector knows this. Many inspectors, recognizing this position, refuse to give referrals of any kind, regardless of the competence of those they might name. In the best of circumstances, referrals involve a degree of calculated risk, and risk of this sort requires faith and reliance on the persons being recommended. To tread on such waters for the sake of a paid gratuity is both foolhardy and disingenuous; first because it undertakes the weight of needless liability and second because it violates the trust of those to whom such referrals are made.

Home inspectors are consumer advocates by profession. Their primary calling is to represent the interests of the home buying public, even when the buyer is not a paid client of the inspector.
If an inspector is too busy to accept a job, the needs of the potential client should still be paramount. A substandard recommendation is as inexcusable as a substandard inspection. When the prime directive, consumer protection, remains in focus, home inspectors recommend only those whose skills are refined, tested, and proved.

Distributed by Access Media Group. To write to Barry Stone, please visit him on the web at www.housedetective.com.