Sproing!
That’s the sound of your newly acquired house going haywire. Sproing! might herald the furnace’s decision to knock off for the day during an ice storm. Or maybe it will signal the lip-curling dribble of rain through your bedroom ceiling. A favorite honeymoon-is-over tactic of many houses is to invite several inches of water into the basement to engulf your washer.
No matter the source, at the sound of the tone you should brace yourself for a lot of aggravation or a lot of expense. Usually both.
You’re no dummy. Why didn’t you see it coming?
Many home buyers do. Or at least, they head off problems by hiring an inspector to run his fine-toothed comb through the house’s mechanical systems and structural components. These days a sales contract often contains a contingency clause that allows purchasers’ inspectors access for a two- to three-hour once-over, from the rafters to the furnace room. The written report that the inspector turns over to the buyers may range in length from a checklist to a novel.
Either one might be adequate-the buyer just needs to know what to expect and to know the background of the person who is writing this critical document, which may have any of several results. The buyer, cowed by the potential House from Hell, may see it as justification for just walking away from the deal. (Inspectors say that doesn’t often happen.)
Or he might just sign on the dotted line, confident that the problems have been flushed out and will be tackled in due course. (Occasionally, the buyer finds that the property is a veritable paragon of virtue.)
Negotiating tool
But most frequently, the buyer uses his new knowledge to negotiate a better price or to get defects repaired before closing, inspectors say.
Inspection services have become major players in the home-buying process in the last few years, according to the American Society of Home Inspectors, an organization with headquarters in Arlington Heights that has about 1,500 full-fledged members and another 3,000 candidates for membership. Vera Hollander Wadler, a spokesman for ASHI (founded in 1976), says it is the largest professional association in the wide-ranging field.
Just about anybody can call himself a home inspector. Currently only Texas licenses them, though several legislatures are studying it. Unsurprisingly, at the core of the debate is who would be excluded from wearing the home inspector mantle.
“Primarily, home inspectors come today from the building trades and contracting. Some are architects and engineers,” Wadler says. “But now we are starting to see some people who look at it as a beginning career, as opposed to a second career.”
The profession has burgeoned in the last seven years or so, according to Wadler and Chicago-area inspectors. She estimates that 8,000 to 10,000 inspectors are in the business today, and that 40 to 50 percent of home sales in the country currently are preceded by a formal, independent inspection, though in some areas it’s almost 100 percent.
But just as all inspectors are not created equally, neither are their reports, and the inspectors themselves suggest that you ask many questions before hiring one. The key is to know how much detailed information you will receive: Ask to see a sample of a previous inspection report, with names or addresses removed to protect privacy. Ask for references, of course, though not necessarily from the real estate brokers who stand to net a commission from a sale that sails through. Ask how many inspections he or she has performed. Ask for proof of insurance, should the inspector damage the property. One inspector says he was asked to produce his ASHI membership card, to show his good standing in the group.
Wadler’s group promotes its members’ technical competency and ethical standards. “ASHI requires its members to pass two written examinations on building structures and mechanical systems and that they perform a minimum of 250 fee-paid inspections that meet our standards,” Wadler says. ASHI members are barred from either repairing the defects they find or recommending others who could.
What’s covered
The defects that these inspectors find are as broad-ranging as the houses themselves. “Very few things that we find are so devastating that they couldn’t be rectified,” according to Ronald L. Gann, a former contractor who runs the North Side inspection service that bears his name.
“A good home inspection should cover all the major mechanical systems (plumbing, heating, electrical), roof, exterior conditions, structural conditions, interior conditions, bathrooms, kitchen and windows,” says Gann, who explains that the process typically takes two to three hours and costs about $250, though there are variables. Wadler says those figures reflect the national average. Testing for radon and asbestos usually costs extra.
Inspectors advertise in the Yellow Pages under “Building Inspection Service,” but often real estate brokers recommend them.
In the brief time that most buyers are given to find and hire an inspector, asking the broker to refer one may seem the easiest recourse. Such referrals have ethical considerations, especially when the broker’s commission is at stake. But Gann says that professionalism-and principles of good business-should prevail: Such referrals work both ways-the broker who represents a buyer who needs an inspection one week may represent a seller the next, and a reputable inspector knows that he has been called in because he can be consistently neutral, Gann says.
Besides, almost unheard-of is the house that has no flaw. The sticking point is how much a given defect matters. Or even when it’s noticed in the first place.
“You absolutely have to do it,” says Jean Royster, a broker with Prudential Preferred Properties in Lake Forest. “(A home inspection) helps people to know where their dollars are going.” In her experience such inspections have soured a deal only once; the flaws that her clients have found typically are not major, she says.
“The No. 1 buyer concern is wet basements,” confirms Jeff Nathan, president of the AmeriSpec inspection service in Highland Park. “But I don’t know if it’s the No. 1 inspector concern.” Although Nathan says he sees plenty of basement headaches, “probably one of the biggest problems (he sees) is lack of adequate venting. It’s an odd one because (as a homeowner) you are probably not cognizant of it. But attic cavities tend to hold a lot of moisture, especially in older homes that may have three layers of roofing.
“We also tend to find small gas leaks,” Nathan says.
Worth it?
That’s what Nathan found when he inspected a house on the North Shore for Pat Toal 2 1/2 years ago. Toal, who accompanied Nathan, says that the inspector found that an exhaust line from one of the house’s two furnaces had become disconnected and Nathan said that carbon monoxide gas was escaping into the house.
“That, in my view, was more than worth the price” of the inspection, says Toal, a lawyer. Otherwise, Nathan found the house to be in good shape. “There was some leaking from skylights,” says Toal, who negotiated with the seller to fix it. Since then, Toal hasn’t encountered any surprises that should have shown up during the inspection.
He says the inspection made him realize how many things he and his wife, Helen, had overlooked. In addition to inspecting the roof, checking the wiring and, as Toal put it, “crawling around the furnaces,” “I was amazed at the types of things that he would check. I knew enough to make sure the garage door went up and down, but he checked the doorbell, he ran the dishwasher. He did a faucet-by-faucet check” of the 4-year-old house.
Age isn’t necessarily a factor in how a house sizes up, the inspectors agree. “In an old house, it’s a question of degree. Say you find a sagging stairway. My line is, we should be so lucky to sag so little when we are 90 years old,” Nathan says. “But in a new house, with a sagging stairway, something went wrong. We try to look at homes as complete systems and how one thing relates to another.”
A national survey of ASHI’s members found the following to be the most frequent problems (with much regional variation): improper surface grading and drainage (causing basement water); improper wiring; roof damage; heating malfunctions; poor overall maintenance; structural problems; plumbing defects; exterior flaws (windows, doors, wall surfaces etc.); and poor ventilation.
Wadler says reports vary in detail from inspector to inspector. Some provide checklists that rate features from “good” to “poor.” Some comment on any feature whose evaluation is anything other than “good.” Some offer estimated price ranges on repairing or replacing questionable features. Some offer estimates on how soon an item will need to be replaced.
Some homeowners have their property inspected before it’s listed, in order to cure headaches before they can show up on another inspector’s report. “That’s a small minority of transactions,” Wadler says. “But it’s growing. You should get your house in shape, and it will sell faster.”
Just how inspectors pass on their information can spill into the realm of diplomacy. All wording must be thoughtful and specific in order to maintain the neutrality of the report, the inspectors say. “If you’re a first-time home buyer, your emotions are very heightened, off the charts,” Gann says. “You need a third pair of unemotional eyes, somebody who can relay the information to you in an educated way.
“People ask me, `Is the house worth it? Should I buy the house?’. (I tell them) I don’t know,” Gann says. “People buy houses for myriad reasons. It would be improper for a home inspector to say, `I would never buy that house.’ You may be pulling their dream out for no reason. My job is to relay data.”
Next month: Hiring a mortgage lender.
