Money well spent for a top quality home inspection
I have hired Ted Gilmour on 2 occasions. Once for a condo I purchased and once for a house. By joining him while he performed the inspections, he showed me what he was looking for and finding. His thorough inspections gave me a much greater understanding of what I was getting myself into before I finalized my purchases than I could have gotten otherwise. His reports provided a well laid out, itemized, and detailed account of my properties. I was able to use his findings for negotiations with the sellers, saving me money, and for budgeting and prioritizing for repairs and upgrades in the near and longer term. He is always willing to provide free follow-up with answers to questions that may arise and cares that repairs get done correctly. With the risks associated with such a large purchase as my home, I couldn't imagine compromising on a home inspection by choosing anyone other than a certified independent home inspector. Ted is my first choice and I highly recommend him to anyone who is purchasing a home. Ted's home inspections are absolutely worth the price.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,000.00
- Company Response
Hi Mike,
It's always difficult to decide on an inspector, most of the inspectors are priced within the $350-$550 range and their websites don't really say much, they all appear to be very similar in content, they claim a competency next to none (I say where's the beef). In some cases home inspectors do not have to advertise or even run a website they are so favored by real estate agents. They simply show up for an inspection by the realtors arrangements, very slick, many homebuyers think one inspection is the same as another or they simply don't see the value of a home inspection , choosing accordingly.
Being on a tight budget you decided you wanted the unvarnished reality of your purchase by having a thorough and well-documented inspection. I'm pleased to hear the discovered deficiencies were negotiated for. Lately people writing my testimonials have been mentioning how expensive I am when in fact I'm probably the least expensive inspector of the bunch when you consider the financial leverage of our discoveries. Generally speaking when I get cold calls one of the 1st questions is: “how much?” After I mentioned their fee will be approx. twice what everybody else's is. They often tell me it's more than they wanted to pay and hang up. Guess who has determined what a home inspector should charge. Real estate Agents are always trying to “help” homebuyers get good deals or so it seems. The real estate sales community all across North America has decided by their referral practices to patronize the lowball service providers with their referral practices. Home inspectors know that if they can't do a complete inspection turnaround within a day they will get no agent referrals. Approx. 95% of all home inspectors in North America are wholly or to some degree dependent on agent referrals. Incredibly no one seems to think this is a conflict of interest, only a couple of states in the US have adopted a virtual firewall preventing agents from referring their favorite home inspectors. I'm sad to say there are very few real professional home inspectors in North America, most of the true professionals cannot compete with the flood of agent compliant lowballers.
Why don't home inspectors put samples of their work on their websites? This is the most critical tell of the inspector's competency and demonstration of the utility of their service.
Thanks Mike, you are a good man to work with.
Happy trails...
Ted Gilmour