I am currently in the middle of buying a home and needed a professional inspection of the plumbing in the house. To my knowledge, an inspection includes a written report explaining the condition of the house and what needs to be improved. After reading the reviews and speaking with John, he assured me that he can do a full inspection of everything in the house, and the main sewer line all for $225.00. He also mentioned he can do a camera inspection of the sewer line for $175.00, if I chose not to go with the package deal. I thought this was a fabulous deal, especially because all other companies ranged $250.00 & up for this package.
Well, initially they seemed like really cool guys, but my experience was a nightmare. To begin, I will be the first to admit that when you are buying a home you are stressed, short on time, and need to watch a lot of moving parts within a short time frame. So, I contacted several professionals to inspect the condition of the house that I am looking to buy, and to my luck, the seller also called a lot of people to work on the house the same day. So you can imagine the amount of people that were in this house.
However, in the spirit of flexibility, I did not think there was a problem. I figured, I will let the professionals do their thing, debrief with them, pay their money, and receive my inspection report by the end of the day. I am a pretty easy going person. If you tell me the information I need to make an informed decision, there should never be a problem.
However, this is not the service I received. Rather, John walked me to the front of the house on several different occasions talking about how he does not want other contractors to see his work. Then, as I was speaking to an electrician, he said he was finished with inspection and I needed to pay him. The only debrief I received from John, was that everything is old and needs to be replaced. When I continued to probe about the water temperature, hot and cold pipes, if they noticed any leaks, etc. THEY DIDN'T EVEN CHECK!!!! I had to walk back to the house with Mike, for him to even turn on the faucet!
At this point, John was clearly annoyed with me through the tone and attitude of this voice, while Mike finally realized that I am asking for detailed report of the condition of the home that I am looking to buy, with possible recommendations of how to prioritize the repairs.
Words cannot express the frustration I experienced with this company. The first thought that came to my mind was, if you were honest, then there should be nothing to hide. Clearly this was not the case. Being the honest person I am, I paid the $225.00 as promised, although I feel that I was robbed of my money given the quality of the service provided to me (minimum expense should have been 175.00). I have posted a picture of my inspection report.
I guess, this is an example of why people say home buying is stressful, and you get what you pay for...