Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Trades and construction support

As a home inspector I do my best to remain impartial with all the reports I do.
The national code of ethics for home inspectors dictates a few practical standards for our industry to live by
  1. I will not do any work on a home I have inspected for one year from the date of the inspection.
  2. I will abide by the Nationally accepted standards of practice that are designed to protect the public
  3. I will work exclusively for the customer, (not the bank the seller or the realtor)
I do get a lot of clients who would like to know how much the costs of repairs could be for the shopping list of deficiencies I have found. This inevitably gets me in trouble since I cannot price another man's time or materials. I can provide a ballpark but lets be realistic, most contractors will take hours to pull a bid together for a job, some off the cuff guess on the part of a home inspector is not what you want to base your buying decision on.
Knowing what needs to be done is half the battle and perhaps here is the other half.
I am constantly in contact with qualified trades people who have the proper skills to get things done right the first time. Many of these companies are eager for work and more than willing to bid work that needs to be done in the near future, which is the case with the work on my report.
I will, over the next few weeks be adding contact information to my website for some of the people I know who are capable of doing a quality job at a fair price. Since I do not recommend any one contractor for any one job I am living up to my desire to remain impartial in my inspections.
Remember: I work for you, I will provide you with the information to make an inteligent desion on but you still need to pull the trigger.
Good luck and happy hunting.