My husband and I had two home inspections done in a short period of time by two different home inspection companies so it gave us a comparison. We thought Home Inspections Maintenance & Mgmt (HIMM) was much more thorough than Housemasters.
It appears to be standard to skip over some features of a home such as irrigation systems, hot tubs, etc. However Housemasters skipped over more items than HIMM in comparing their reports.
Casey from Housemasters got into the attic and on top of the roof so the inspection seemed pretty thorough however we were a little disappointed to find so many items on the report that weren't inspected. After we moved in we discovered gas leaks in both fireplace shut-offs. Maybe this isn't something that's normally inspected either? We also learned from the Avista gas inspector the furnace vent is under the deck rotting out the wood. It needs to be extended. That was never mentioned in the report. We still don't know whether the water softener is working as it was a skipped item. Another separate inspection? The hot & cold water is reversed in the showers (not mentioned in report). It's minor but makes us wonder if even more things were missed (such as reversed wiring in the other house HIMM inspected).
It's tough in a competitive market. You try to make your offer attractive by shortening the inspection time but then it's hard to schedule more than one inspection so you want it to be as thorough as possible. It's best to be there in person when the inspection takes place (as we were). You learn a lot more than you would from just looking at the report. Next time around I would ask right when I made the inspection appointment what items WON'T be covered so I would hopefully have time to schedule separate inspections as needed (furnace, A/C, gas fireplaces, hot tub, possibly roof and irrigation system). read more