It is important to find an inspector who is on your team and looking out for your interests. We used Neal Muckler from Asset Inspection. He is old school. Doesn’t have a website. Still writes everything in a giant pad of papers and makes you copies. But he is anal/OCD and will point out every little lame thing that is wrong. Depending on the house, he’ll look around for 3-5 hours, then spend an hour walking you through each and every one of his findings. It’s a little overwhelming, and can be scary, but he looks out for things that could be problematic not just now, but 5, 10, 15, 30 years down the road. He gives lifetime estimates on each thing, eg: “This roof will probably last you another 8-10 years.” His report then ranks items in order of importance, eg: A = fix now, B = fix soon, C = fix someday. He saved our ass on a potential purchase many years ago and we used him again for the place we bought a few months ago. We’ve used his advise to make some repairs and the contractors that came in to look at the stuff say that his advise was spot on.
We referred him to a friend who was buying a house, and he actually missed something with the water heater. My friend called him back and he came out and offered to not only refund their inspection fee, but also to pay for and repair the issues himself. How many inspectors would admit to their mistakes and go out of their way to make it right like that?
Neal Muckler
Asset Inspection
2320 Wightman Street
San Diego, CA 92104-3323 [email protected]
619-298-7140