On the recommendation of my agent I hired Pillar to Post to conduct a home inspection. My agent raved about the owner, Chad Casper, and he obliged my request to personally inspect the historic house I was buying. The outside was a beautiful classic Craftsman (concrete covered front porch, all-brick walls, original wooden floors, etc.) but the entire inside had been completely and tastefully renovated. I was absolutely in love with the house but needed a really careful and experienced eye to comb through its bones. Of the three types of inspections offered by PTP, I opted for the middle tier which Chad says is the most commonly purchased one from him.
Chad was actually a few minutes early for our 9am appointment and the entire inspection took almost 2 hours. I asked if I could tag along to learn about... well, everything... and Chad practically insisted. I asked questions about every room and appliance and he never became perturbed. I learned about construction of turn-of-the-century masonry homes and about the (quality) remodeling that the longtime owners had undertaken (not flippers, thank God). I lamentably also learned about a dozen minor quirks that "should be" tended to and about one critical thing that needed immediate replacement. The sellers were aware of it (indeed had previously disclosed it, as required in their SPDS). Once we presented our similar report plus estimate regarding that problem, they were also fully agreeable to foot the entire repair bill. I have to (now) agree with my agent that a home inspection should never ever be skipped, even if it costs $700 as this one did and even if it were to yield nothing problematic (that would simply be confirmed peace of mind, right?!).
I think the best part of Pillar to Post is the depth of their emailed report. It is 30+ pages and every room and every single "issue" is illustrated with color photos and written explanations. And all of this arrived less than two days later. Another nifty feature is the 3D video of the entire home that Chad magically produced (available via zip file online and downloadable). I say magically because he was somehow IN the video (a little bit distorted) and yet I was the only other person present (and I definitely never held a camera)!
One of the neatest bonuses of the inspection report was the appliances manuals. It turns out Chad was scanning the barcodes of all of the appliances and HVAC systems during the inspection. Then, in the report, he provides links to PDFs of all of the available operator manuals for those devices (some over 100 pages long). I simply printed these for future use but that is so slick! In the case of this house with everything having been updated in the past 10 years, manuals were relatively easy to locate but that might not always be the case, just FYI. I also opted for the additional (and little bit pricey) infra red scan of the house. Chad "beams" the ceiling, walls, and floors checking for discrepancies in temperature (which would likely indicate a water leak or insulation gap). Photos of all of these heat-signature scans are included in the report. Thankfully no problems were found.
Finally, PTP offers utility transfer - for free. Again, I wasn't even thinking that far ahead and I certainly never realized this was a service that was included in the Inspection. With this feature their staff will facilitate the transfer of all utilities into your name. I haven't done that yet so cannot speak to it but just wanted to flag that bonus too. read more
