Jim and Merle are tremendously great at their jobs --- you would want them to be your inspector whether you're trying to sell your home or before buying your new one. We used them in our recent sale and subsequent purchase. The value that they provide is beyond expectations. An example of this was when a potential buyer already set up a preinspection on the sale of our home. Upon reading Jim's inspection report, the potential buyer immediately cancelled their own inspection, saying, in their words, that Jim's inspection report was very thorough and is more than adequate for them. Not only did it save everybody the time and effort (and stress!) of having multiple inspections, but it also translated in real $$$ savings for all parties involved. No wonder they are the BEST in the greater Seattle area! read more

Can't say enough positive things about our experience with Jim and Merlita. They were recommended by our real estate agent and I can honestly say using them was the best decision we made throughout our buying process. From the beginning, they were flexible on scheduling and did their best to work around our ever-changing timeline that evolved as we negotiated with our builder. Communication was prompt and direct. Jim and Merlita were respectful of our new (very clean) space and took steps to be sure they made as little impact as possible. And they summarize all their findings in a detailed report, complete with photos, descriptions and simple / easy to understand 'what this means' findings. Even after the inspection, they followed up quickly which was unexpected but welcome. Our home is new construction which sounds simple but they caught several unfinished / poorly finished details that would have cost us thousands down the line including a misaligned truss that could have had pretty big structural implications. Thanks to them, the builder went back and finished or fixed 5-6 items before we closed. They also made several recommendations for preventative maintenance that would save us money in the long run and would help our home age better. I trust Jim and Merlita and whole heartedly recommend their services. When I'm looking for a home inspector in the future, they'll be my first call. read more

Jim was wonderful. He showed up early and got to work right away. Jim was tremendously thorough and knowledgeable in current codes. It was very evident that he had our best interests in mind as we went through the inspection. I would recommend him in a heartbeat! read more

Jim did an inspection for my client, of a home in Seattle. Among other items,he called out the fact that the electrical panel showed signs of rust on many of the breakers and that it should be investigated further. As it turned out, the external meter was leaking around the seams and permitted moisture in to the wall and service panel. An electrician required Seattle City Light to inspect and make repairs to their equipment and in turn, he had to replace the service panel. A new meter was installed and sealed correctly by Seattle City Light. I pointed out the value of a home inspection to my client, that the electrical panel replacement alone was "worth the price of admission". She whole heartedly agreed. There was a total of approximately $4,000 in repairs to this seemingly well maintained home. This is a company I can confidently recommend to my clients. read more

They were great to work with and produced a very thorough and detailed report, which they went over in detail with me. It will be most useful. read more

The bottom line is if Property Inspector LLC would have done their job properly we would NOT have purchased the house. We are now living the movie The Money Pit and it is not pleasant. We contacted Jim about the additional items that he missed on the inspection and he had no compassion and no interest in making it right with us. He missed the entire roof needing to be replaced and roof leaking in multiple spots, the shower drain was not installed at all and water was flooding the basement, floor joists are not supported correctly and causing house to sag (he made this seem like a small insignificant thing. Now we have had contractors look at it, it is absolutely a huge thing), house is completely missing siding in places, and a multitude of other leaks and problems. The Review that Fortune B. left was spot on. read more

Jim did a great job. Very detailed, explained everything to us well, left no stone uncovered. Very happy with!

Jim is a fantastic and thorough property inspector. (We have used at least 2 others and he is hands down the best). We hired Jim to do an inspection of our new construction house after completion of the build and again at the 1 year warranty expiration. He and his wife found so many things that the builder should be been more diligent about. For example, my husband mentioned that our basement seemed unreasonably cold, so he used thermal imaging to determine that a wall was missing a significant portion of insulation. We checks all aspects of the home: basement, crawl space, roof, attic, fireplace, etc.). He has helped us look up code to push back on our builders claims that their work was to code. When we had our warranty walk-through with the builder's representative, the representative was so frustrated at the number of fixes needed (which is silly as it's their fault anyway...). His level of knowledge of the code and manufacturer warranties is beyond that of any inspector I have worked with. Although this is a headache for the builder, it's a good thing for you. You will not be disappointed if you hire Jim. I highly recommend him. read more

We have used Jim and Merlita's services several times now for different property types. We are so happy to have found a company that we trust and value for such an important piece of any real estate transaction. read more

We are very impressed with the work done by Jim and Merlita. Truly professionals. Everything was explained as well as shown. Excellent presentation with photos and suggestions. Great work! read more

This is the second home I have use Jim for. He is very thorough, detail oriented and professional. We both love how he goes over the entire inspection with you. He really helps to put you as ease with buying a home! read more

I needed someone fast and Jim's schedule was flexible. Jim and Merlita were nice, but, I didn't have them over to be nice. Jim spent most of his time on the computer while Merlita tried to do most of inspection work. Entire inspection took less than 2 hours with one person on the computer majority of the time. There was even new water leakage under my sink that My wife discovered which I fixed. Was that on inspection report, of course not. My wife did mention she saw one of them touching hoses under the sink. Luckily leakage stopped after I tightened the bolt. His report was sloppy and contradicted with what he verbally shared. You can use Jim if you need to go through the motion of doing inspection, but, stay away from him if you really want to know what is wrong with your house. Talking with one of my friend we found out we used same inspector previously and they also felt same way about quality of inspection. read more

0 Stars. This company cost us our buyers. Not only did they exaggerate, they were flat out inaccurate for multiple items on the report. They told our buyers the roof was collapsing, the electrical was unsafe, and the plumbing needed to be replaced. We were shocked, as none of that came up in our inspection only 3 years prior. Extremely concerned, we had multiple specialists come examine the home. They all said the report wasn't only complete overkill, but there were gross inaccuracies. They also highly recommended I report this business to the BBB based on just how bad the report was. Even after having multiple contractors write and certify that the inspection was incorrect, we lost the buyers because they were convinced we lived in a death trap. As a small example, here is one response from a contractor after reading the inspection report and examining our home: "An over the top and acerbic inspection report. This report would overwhelm most people, and is not very professional in my opinion. Too much emphasis on many small items and a fair amount of hyperbole. On the positive side, the images used to identify possible fixes are helpful, as are the suggested remedies. Nice of the inspector to coach you at the expense of the potential buyer!! A few of the items noted as problems are completely inaccurate." read more

Jim and his wife did an incredible job inspecting our potential home. He found things that were extremely important to have corrected prior to closing. His report were much more detailed than I expected it to be. I will recommend Jim to everyone I know looking to have a home inspection. And if you are reading this review don't pass this home inspector up. read more

Jim was FANTASTIC. Absolutely dedicated to a high-quality inspection and experience. He was diligent and thorough during the entire review of the house and went above and beyond to ensure every part of the house was inspected. In addition, the depth of quality he provided on the report was beyond anything we experienced during other reviews and pre-inspections we had previously seen. I highly recommend anybody looking for a true and honest inspection work with Jim! read more

Inspector was polite and professional. Walked us through the inspection at the end. After he offered to pass my information on to a third party company to help transfer over water, power, internet, etc. to my new home. I declined and specifically said to NOT pass along my personal information. A few days later the third party company called me. When I confronted the inspector he said when he passed on my information he told them not to call me. He intended to pass along my personal information no matter what I said. When I asked him what his kick back was he claimed he received none. Edit: (4/7/2014) Jim's response below originally called me Anthony throughout his comment. He updated it today to call me Arthur. Edit:(11/16/2014) The inspector stated my chimney had minor damage that would require minimal masonry work and recommended I have a chimney liner installed. I had a chimney service out this week and I need to have the chimney from the roof up rebuilt. I looked at it myself and agree. The bricks are corroded and falling apart and moss is growing in the mortar. How the inspector classified this as 'minor work' is beyond me. Do not use this service. Edit: (11/18/2014) Jim has agreed to give me a full refund for my poor experience. read more

Jim and his wife have been tremendously helpful for our real estate purchase. Going into our offer, we had already expected to need to put some work into the property, but Jim was very helpful and specific as to what needed to be fixed right away, what could wait for later, and what we should consider when doing our renovations. Extremely helpful, very thorough, and was able to fit us in his schedule at the last minute. Five stars all around! read more

Very detailed report and friendly owners. Jim took the time to walk through each of the major and minor items so I had a better understanding of the house I am buying and what additional costs may be coming up in the near future. Would highly recommend! read more

I was very impressed at the great job PI did inspecting our new home. Even with an already packed schedule they still made time to help us get our inspection. The service was highly professional and friendly and the report was detailed. Their depth of knowing what to look for and how to remedy any issues was incredible. I am definitely recommending Property Inspector to all of my friends and anyone else in the market for a home. read more

Jim and Merlita arrived early on the day of our inspection and went straight to work. They work as a two person team where Jim does all of the traditional home inspection and Merlita examines every part of the interior for finish problems. In our case we were purchasing a new home, so, Merlita was doing a lot of "blue taping" of paint and grout issues. We were impressed with how prepared both Jim and Merlita were for the job. Jim had coveralls, which he used when entering the craw space and attic, to ensure that he did not track dirt and derbies into the house. They took pictures of every possible issue which were included in the report that was sent to us the same day. Jim also took the time to talk about possible future maintenance projects. Jim has a good knowledge of all the systems in a home from heating and plumbing, to masonry and gutters. If you read reviews of Property Inspector LLC here on Yelp you will see some complaints, from sellers, that Jim is extremely detail oriented and picky. Obviously sellers don't like this, no one likes to be told their home isn't perfect, but, as a buyer we really appreciated the attention to detail and felt we were fully informed when it came to deciding what needed to be addressed by the seller/builder before closing. read more

We are in the process of purchasing a new home and hired Jim to do the home inspection. Many people have told us to save our money and we do not need an inspection because this is a new construction. Although our new home is a well built home, Jim found many minor issues that the builders forgot to do. If left undone, these minor issues can become major issues in the future. This is the third home that we are purchasing and Jim Estrada is the best inpector we have ever worked with! Thank you Jim for such a thorough job! read more

We both work and it is very hard for us to find the time to get an inspection done during the weekdays. Our offer got accepted on a Thursday night: we called Jim based on the great online reviews and our realtor's recommendation. Jim not only was able to accommodate us for a Saturday inspection on short notice, but he and his wife were @ the property on time and conducted a most thorough inspection of the house. He provided us w/ a comprehensive report of every single issue in the house. The report contains detailed pictures, explanations and, very important to us, guidance to resolve to the problems he pointed out. We don't know much about home repairs and his report is full of graphs and useful information about each finding. His extensive knowledge and experience has given me a clear picture of the condition of the house. The report is overwhelming, but he is very good at explaining it and pointing out the priority of his findings: he is not an alarmist, but he explains how the inspection can be used as the project plan for maintenance of the home. I highly recommend his services. Jim, Merlita: again thank you very much!!!! read more

We highly recommend Property Inspector!!! Jim has been extremely responsive, friendly helpful and will go beyond to ensure your home is properly taken care of. Call him! read more

Very detailed inspection with photos and safety information on many aspects of the home. This is my second time using Property Inspector and I'm happy to use them again! read more

Jim inspected our home we were selling. He made numerous mistakes in his report. Our home was a rebuild in 2013- one small section of foundation remained of the original home. His report said the home was over 50 years old, he said the plumbing was old galvanized in some areas (not true we had all new plumbing throughout) he said the drain line was 50 years old - again not true. He said the buyers should put in footing drains - the home has them, there were several code items he mention which were not correct. Etc etc etc. he said a three way switch didn't work - it was a switch to ceiling fan. He said some lights were burnt out and needed to be replaced - not true just turn on the right switch. He said the gas meter was too small for the number of gas appliances - not true PSE made that call and determined the size. He called out several other major items, since our home was just built in 2013 it was engineered and built to code and signed off by the city. We hired major companies to do the installs of equipment that were very good at doing their work to code. He made assumptions on things he couldn't see. I would not hire him not r would I allow him on my property. read more

Jim was a fantastic inspector, his report was easy to follow and well worth it. He has great advice and so much experience, he was able to give us reasonable expectations on repairs and tell us when to get a more detailed inspection. I would use him again in a heartbeat. read more