Absolutely terrible. We have done a lot of real estate transactions, and this was by far the most…read moreridiculous home inspection we encountered. Some of you may feel that a strict inspector is important as a buyer's advocate (in a sense), and that is reasonable... but this inspector was incompetent, and caused real problems with the transaction. You do not want that in an inspector, you want someone who will FAIRLY and CORRECTLY identify real problems. So, first of all, he noted roofing problems, so we had a professional roofer come inspect (and give estimate). His quote was, "I have never seen a case like this; it's like he made up a problem. There are no repairs needed on your roof at all." We had to get the roofer to provide a signed statement disputing inspector's claim, and had to pay for that roofer's time. Second, he did an absolutely bizarre test of the home's fifth bathroom in the basement. He turned on the sink faucet at the same time as the shower and noted that when both were running, it was as if the sink faucet controlled the shower. Well, this was a ridiculous test, because there was no conceivable way that anyone would need or want to use the bathroom in that way. Again, this is the small, fifth bathroom in the house, not the master bath. Without running the sink simultaneously there was no issue with the shower (even if a sink upstairs was running). Not a real problem, just a way to shave a few bucks off the selling price for the buyers. Third, he claimed that the garage door safety mechanism was not working, since he could place a thin piece of cardboard (literally a few sheets of paper in height) under the door and it wasn't detected. How did I know that was his test? He left the cardboard as litter on the ground there. Well, he didn't recognize that the safety mechanism for the door would not recognize that, since it was an eye across the path of the door. This is the better safety mechanism anyway, since it accounts for kids running under a door. In other words, he cited us, but he himself did not recognize how the door worked. All in all, I found him to be highly unethical, to the point that I was considering reporting him to the attorney general''s office. I have been through lots of home inspections with competent and fair professionals. This guy was completely incompetent.
EDITED (because I remembered more): The inspector claimed that gas lines to the fireplace were not consistent with code. Not true, they were replaced and inspected by the county. The inspector recommended that a self-closing door be added between the kitchen and garage. We have seen many, many homes... none ever had such doors, and no inspector would have recommended that, except one looking to help his buyer clients get over on a seller.
EDITED (in response to business owner's reply to my google review): Business owner snidely "apologized for my disappointment in his commitment to industry standards." Nice try. I have information about those standards. On the bathroom issue, section 6.2 of the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) Standards of Practice states that "inspectors are not required to measure water supply flow and pressure." It's fine if you do it, but your test and video evidence of it was non-sensical and misleading; you never showed that under normal conditions it behaves as expected. On the garage issue, the US Consumer Product Safety Commision issued rules in 1992 about garage door safety. They require that ONE of the following devices be enabled for safety: photoelectric eye (what we have), OR door edge sensor (what the inspector attempted to test), OR a constant contact door button.
Again, those regulations only require ONE safety feature which we have. Of note, the inspector's test using cardboard wouldn't work for the door sensor test. The standard is to put down something substantial like a 2X4. So, he not only did the wrong test, he did the wrong test the wrong way. These regulations are published on the Commission's website:
https://www.cpsc.gov/content/safety-commission-publishes-final-rules-for-automatic-garage-door-openers .
