Anyone have a good recommendation for home inspectors/services? Anyone you used and were impressed with?
Ron Givins. He is a career inspector who worked with the state of Texas to require inspectors to be certified and as of '03 (when I bought my last house) was still assisting them in updating the certification tests. He's so thourough, that some real estate agents have been warned about him to steer there customers away from him ...simply because he scares people off. My first home inspector gave me a 5 page report. My termite guy found a GIGANTIC mechanical issue (that should have been caught by the inspector) that was nearly a deal breaker. That deal fell through for other reasons. Givens' report is about 30 pages long. When he's done, I feel like I know everything thing there is to know about the house. Me? I'd rather have too much info than too little info before making a giant investment. But if you are the squimish/reluctant type, Givens isn't for you. No house is perfect however new/old and he'll give you the straight story. Then you can decide for yourself what is a deal breaker. I've used him 5 times. Givens inspected this one house that was "flipped" and he and I were almost in tears laughing by the time he was done chainsawing this place. It looked great but there were so many problems that the builder/agent nearly kicked us out. I was ready to call off the inspection halfway through cause it was obvious the place was terrible but he WANTED to keep going. He said by law, the seller is required to divulge known defects about a house and his inspection could be used as documented proof that the seller was aware of all the problems he found. At that point, he wasn't even working for me anymore ...he was just working for the common good of flushing out this crooked developer. How about THAT for integrity! email me if you want his #
