I hired Foresight for both a full home inspection and a separate engineering foundation evaluation…read morefor a first-time home purchase. I was very impressed with Mr. Varma and the quality of his work. Mr. Varma's significant education, credentialing, and years of experience is the reason I chose Foresight. He is a licensed Professional Structural Engineer with a bachelors and master's in civil engineering, and something like 20 different industry licenses/credentials.
The seller had already obtained a professional pre-listing inspection a couple of months earlier, which gave me an unusual opportunity to compare two inspections of the same house. The seller's inspection was competent and caught a number of real issues, but placing the two reports side by side made it obvious how much more detailed and technically specific Mr. Varma's work was.
The attic was the clearest example. The prior report documented the basic framing and insulation. Mr. Varma went considerably further, identifying undersized purlins, insufficient bracing and collar ties contributing to visible roof and sheathing sag, and a deficient ridge-board configuration. That was representative of his work overall. He would identify a problem, then explain what was wrong with it and why it mattered.
Having the general inspection and a separate engineering foundation evaluation done in the same visit was a real convenience during a limited option period. For the foundation report, he performed a micro-elevation survey across the first floor. He measured as much as 1.8 inches of variation, but he also weighed the absence of adverse symptoms, the fairly even door reveals, and the properly operating doors. His conclusion was that the slab had likely been poured somewhat unlevel and settled some over its 43 years, but was still performing as intended and did not require repair. He separately identified localized rusted rebar causing concrete popping and recommended a specific repair.
Mr. Varma encouraged us to attend, arrived about 30 minutes early, and was already working when I got there. Throughout the inspection he pointed things out, explained why they were deficiencies, distinguished material issues from cosmetic ones, and gave us practical advice on the minor items we could reasonably handle ourselves. He explained, for instance, that garage-door safety sensors mounted too high can allow a small child or pet to pass beneath the beam without stopping a closing door.
One small detail in the report stuck with me as a good indication of his experience. He identified some unusual exterior trim damage specifically as squirrel damage. I wondered how he could possibly know that, especially since there were no squirrels around at the time. I looked up images of squirrel damage to houses afterward, and it looked exactly like the damage that he photographed.
He was professional and courteous throughout and delivered both reports within roughly 36 hours, despite leaving the country the following morning. I appreciated that given our option-period deadline.
I just have one small constructive criticism; the report formatting could be cleaned up a little. The reports pack in a lot of information, and they'd be easier to work through with a few changes: a table of contents that indicates where to find specific sections, more spacing between the sections (or larger headers for each section), and some different font color choices...a lot of text was in bright red which was a little difficult to read for me.
I wanted an inspector who would catch the things most inspectors wouldn't even know to look for, explain what actually mattered, and give me enough to make an informed decision. Mr. Varma did exactly that. Beyond that, the thoroughness, detail, and significant technical expertise reflected in his reports will give me solid grounds to negotiate a lower purchase price; I'm confident I'll be able to more than recoup the reasonable cost of the inspections because of his findings. I would absolutely use Foresight again and recommend them wholeheartedly.
