A single inspector, contractor, agent, buyer, owner, home, property or building....
This site is for you the consumer. Our pledge is to always be honest above all else. Our goal here is to educate YOU. Rather than attempt to direct you to services that pay us to do so, we will make our recommendations without concern to who if anyone is paying us or how much. Any referral fees we receive will be disclosed in full next to the qualifying advertisement.
A single inspector.... What should you look for in an inspector? That depends on what you are looking for. Standards and techniques vary wildly from area to area let alone state to state. Many inspectors will describe in detail what their services entail and what type of experience they have inspecting as well as what other types of qualifications they have but it is your responsibility to ask. Residential inspections diverge significantly from commercial inspections and are a relatively newer practice. A commercial inspector likely has more experience than most residential inspectors due to their prevalence in relation to their market.
A single contractor... What should you look for in a contractor? A good contractor, I dare say, is easier to come by and easier to vet. Contractors and trade people have been around a lot longer than inspectors and tend to specialize a bit more. References are key, as are multiple bids, materials costs only up front (paid for and ordered by you is better), a detailed plan and or estimate along with a contract is a must. Sounds simple enough doesn't it?
A single agent... Realtors are salespeople and should be viewed as such in our opinion. The only time a Realtor can reasonably be assumed to be working in good faith for you is when you are the seller of a quality property at a fair to slightly below fair asking price. There are extraordinary sales people out there, as there are extraordinary Realtors, if you have an agent or an office that has done an exceptional job for you we would love to hear about it.
A single buyer or owner... We won't even attempt to tackle this one with any fairness. A good buyer, seller or owner of a given property is simply too subjective. Again it comes down to what you want, what you can afford and what you are willing to put up with.
A single home, property or building... A home is a fairly complex set of systems that depend upon one another to function as a whole. A home requires regular maintenance and monitoring to function properly and with the right care can last indefinitely. Properties and buildings consist largely of the some components. A small sample list goes as follows; exterior components like landscape, siding, windows, drives, parking areas, porches, roofing types and materials, doors. Interior components vary wildly but typically at the minimum include a plumbing system, HVAC equipment servicing the heating and air conditioning, ventilation, electrical items including breaker boxes, outlets, light switches, light fixtures and the like. Of course all of this rests upon some structural system or framing which may be steel, wood or some exotic material like soil brick. In short, we will attempt to cover all of these within this site.