tl;dr: hire these guys.
I hired this company after much research to inspect a house I had placed an offer on, tho I had some structural and plumbing doubts. They were super-easy to schedule and totally accommodating with my home inspection deadlines.
I also had doubts about the seller/agent as well, so I bought their "ultimate" package which comes with termite inspection, thermal imaging (a must in El Paso!!!), lab mold analysis, and sewer scope. Sure, you can hire outside specialty companies to do each of those separately, but why bother when AAA has all the equipment and knowledge and rolls it all into a single, detailed home inspection report to get it all done in one go?
Worth every penny. Even if (and especially because) the house ultimately didn't work out. The inspection is not cheap, but it's a WHOLE lot cheaper than buying a money pit. If you're looking at an older home, I highly recommend investing in the ultimate package to uncover everything that every former owner may have done (or not done) to the home.
Night before inspection: seller/agent confirms all utilities are on and gates/doors will be unlocked.
Day of inspection: not the case. The gas was shut off, the electricity had failed inspection, one critical gate could not be unlocked.
I arrived early to find AAA had beat me to it, with Isaac and Chris already started on measurements. The agent showed up to unlock the house, and we went from there, having no voice but to forgo anything gas-related (hot water heater, range, hot water reaching faucets, wall heaters...) since it was shut off.
And then we got on the roof... Those structural issues I'd been concerned with? The view from the roof revealed an "oh heck no" -- far worse than what could be seen from the ground level. The area was freshly painted over and covered with some quick-grow foliage, so investigating what was going on was made as hard as possible, but: a missing yard retaining wall caused the dirt thus the foundation to settle in that corner, pulling that corner of the house down along with it. (I brought a general contractor back shortly thereafter who confirmed the same). No minor project nor expense to remedy.
Plenty of other brand new fix-n-flip renovations even had their issues - leaking plumbing under sinks, non-working window safety bars and the like. Even though the gas was off, the gas line wasn't even attached to the range in a house advertised as "move-in ready."
And then we come to the fun part: turning on every water spigot in the house (noting their slow drain) to run the sewer scope down to the city main: 86' from the cleanout valve; the first 68' are cast iron and the rest is clay. I've done this on sewer laterals well over twice this one's age, and this was the most horrifying one I've seen in my life. There's plastic construction debris blocking its flow throughout, and TP and what-have-you caught up in that, creating an ugly dam (I lost my appetite for about a week). 34' down the cast iron pipe, the camera shows us roots have infiltrated the decaying cast iron and are growing amok. The entirety of the cast iron section is decaying and cracked, evident from the hundreds of water bugs scurrying away from the camera's light and disappearing into said cracks. Great. So the soil surrounding that entire area is literally fertilized with human sh*t. Further down the sewer, we reach the clay part. Looks undamaged. No wonder: with ALL the water in the house turned on and flowing through the sewer line, none of it ever touched that clean clay part, i.e., the sewer lateral isn't actually working and flowing to the city main at all; it's just getting trapped and fertilizing the yard with the last thing you'd possibly want.
Regarding the gas not being on as promised: there's a nominal fee for them to return, which is charged to the seller for not having things ready as promised in writing. (Get things in writing!)
If sound disgruntled about the way the house was advertised/disclosed vs our findings, I am, justifyably. Plenty more transpired unrelated to my review of these inspectors. What I will reiterate about AAA: they are thorough to a fault and no stone is left unturned. As I followed them, they explained everything to me and why it was an issue. Throughout and at the end, they asked if I had any questions. Only some minor ones related to city codes which they explained in full (I'm new to town and wanted confirmation on building codes I'd read about). I'd brought my camera and notebook to the inspection but found I didn't need them, because all of that information and photos made it into the inspection report. And the report is long and detailed as you'd want it to be - but a very nice touch: they summarize all the findings at the very end for a quick overall look at what you're getting yourself into with that house.
This house didn't work out, but I'll certainly call them for the next one. read more