I hired this company to do my home inspection despite their rate being higher than others because they offer a "warranty" according to their admin. I needed someone to really look at the cracks in the exterior walls to make sure if there are no costly repairs. Brian Osborne was my Inspector. Although he did walk around the house with me, he made it sound like there's no real issues and all the repairs are just strictly cosmetic. I believed him, even though I hated that he refused to offer a rough estimate on how much the repairs would cost. He said he doesn't have that knowledge. Sad, because I paid more for this company thinking they are good because they claimed their Inspectors have a builder's background. Many of the less expensive Inspectors have this basic knowledge.
Anyways, Brian made it sound like this house was "solid" with just minor cosmetic issues. After I bought the house, I got a masonry out to give me an estimate for repairing the exterior chips and cracks. I almost fainted when he quoted me for $30,000 to replace both chimneys and repairing the walls. He said at one point, my chimney was filled with water, which resulted in the chips and cracks that I see. He also said there's water issues in the surrounding of the house, which is why I see certain areas of the wall split. I was totally devastated and called Brian to see why he didn't point out to me the severity of the walls. He said he never heard of this and suggests I call to get a second opinion. I ended up calling four different companies out to give me estimates. All four quoted me more than $12,000 to get the exterior fixed. The last company was able to quote me lower because he's trying to save me money by caulking certain areas instead of totally replacing. I'm devastated.
Brian asked me to call him back, in which I did. Instead of taking responsibility over the fact that he failed to notice the severity of the cracks and never told me to hire a masonry to take a look, he just insisted that he was just doing his job by providing me with what he can see. Anyone without builder's knowledge can see these issues, but we are hiring Inspectors to let us give us more insight to issues like these. I feel that this company is more worried about being sued more than their customer's benefit. If they would've done their job properly, they won't be sued. I feel that when I asked Brian to give me a rough estimate on the repairs, and if he really doesn't know, he should tell me to get a masonry out before buying this property. That's the least he could've done.
I also hate how these people are nice to you initially when they want your business, but totally ignores you when there's an issue. Brian was still nice after I was frustrated with the repair costs, but when I asked about the warranty, he said they're in the process of modifying it (what?). He told me to call Dan. When I called their office, their admin was getting impatient and rushed through to try to get me off the phone even though all I wanted to ask is to speak to Dan. She said Dan is busy with another job and she'll leave him a message to call me back. It's been several days, but Dan never called me. I would advise you to look elsewhere if you want to hire an inspector. There are way better ones out there. read more
