Buying a home is a lot like seeing the sun come up. Its the start of a new day, filled with promise and hope, and buying a home represents the start of a new phase in a person's life.
It takes a long time to look for and finally place and offer on a home. Not to mention the years of dreaming about a ... well ... dream home. Whether a purchase is the first or last home a person intends to buy, homes can and do have problems. Even new ones. No home is perfect. Our job at Finial to help clients understand their home and its inner workings, and to help guide them on the road to home ownership.
Finial Property Inspection is a multi-service property inspection company that currently meets all ASHI standards, Pennsylvania laws and PA DEP reporting and inspection requirements.
Contact:
Phone: 412-366-8111
Finial Property Inspection
263 Sewickley Oakmont Rd.
Pgh., PA 15237
e-mail: finialpi@earthlink.net
How do we guide a client? We give our clients a complete description of the condition of the home and its components. In addition to listing material deficiencies with a home, we also give maintenance advice and report on aging components.
This helps a client to make the hard choices associated with a home purchase. We do not pass or fail a home. Doing so is against industry and ASHI standards. We provide the information, but only the client can make those personal decisions.
Why not pass or fail a home? Every home is different and all homes have problems. Though we try to give the best information possible, the buyer is the only person who can truly decide what kind of problems they can and can not accept in the purchase of a home.
Some buyers decide they can not handle what we as inspectors privately feel are minor problems, or the seller may not be willing to take care of problems the buyer feels they should. On the other hand, a buyer may already know they are buying a home with more than a few problems - though they may not know precisely what until after the inspection - and they are willing to take on a few refurbishing projects because of other qualities they feel the home has.
Proximity to job, family, schools or some other personal attachment to a home may weigh in the decision making process of a home buyer. The home may even have architectural significance to a buyer. A buyer may feel that 110 year old Victorian or Italianate may be worth dealing with some of its age related problems.
No one, not a qualified home inspector, or experience real estate agent, can fully advise a buyer on these very personal matters.
Does an inspector look at every part of the home? This is the desire, but it is not always possible. Some homes can provide limitations in their design. Attics or crawl spaces with no access, steep or high roofs that can not be walked on, or finished basements where access to normally open cavities is limited. In all honesty, any inspector who says they inspect every part of a home is not providing the whole picture.
Weather can also keep inspectors from seeing everything that needs to be seen. Snow covered roofs or yards. Winter cold that limits turning on and testing air conditioning units.
Homes are often inspected when they are still occupied by sellers. Basements and attics filled with moving boxes and the years of accumulated junk (we all have it) can also limit and inspection. These are only a few of the possible problems that can keep any inspector from a full inspection.
Do you follow any guidelines? Finial inspectors follow the standards of the American Society of Home Inspectors. ASHI. Many inspection firms advertise that they go beyond the standards. We at Finial often go beyond them when we can, but any inspectors ability to do so can differ from house to house. See previous post
Even if we strictly followed the ASHI guidelines a client would have nothing to worry about. ASHI guidelines and code of conduct are the most complete in the industry. They are the national standard. According to ASHI guidelines, and inspector is required to report on every visible and accessible home system.
We attempt to go beyond these standards in several ways. Using special investigative tools like Carbon Monoxide detector, combustible gas detector and moisture detection. We are not required to give advice about the long term maintenance of a home, but we look for opportunities to teach a prospective home owner about the structure.
ASHI inspectors are required to take yearly update training. In the current membership year, Finial is current with its continuing education credits required by ASHI.
Is a home inspection the same thing as a code inspection? No, and for good reason. Older homes are "grand fathered" into the latest codes, and codes are constantly updated. Most older homes will never meet the current codes, but that doesn't make an older home a bad place to live. Not even the best code inspector can remember every code for the last 150 years.
A home inspection under the ASHI rules is a functionality inspection. This means we inspect to see: If a homes systems work, do the systems work as they should and what are the age related issues with those systems.
Does the client need to be at the inspection? Though it is not required for a client to be at an inspection, we strongly recommend it.
Clients are better able to understand what an inspector is talking about if the inspector can actually point to a component and show the client the problem. This further helps the client when they read the report, and say "oh yes...I remember being shown that by the inspector."
The simple truth is that any inspection is better if the client is there.
Should the seller be at an inspection? We at Finial prefer the seller not be at an inspection, but it is their home and their presence in unnavoidable if they choose to stay.
Even the best homes have problems, and a seller can become defensive as we process through an inspection. An owner knows what they have done to keep up their home, and they can feel even minor discoveries reflect personally on them.
We at Finial do out best to understand this personal conflict of the seller, and treat their home with respect at all times.
Who does an inspector work for? The agent? The Bank? The appraiser? A home inspector should not be confused with the many other people that may look at a home and be involved with its sale. We are paid by, and work for the buyer. (our clients) We report only to them, and with their permission, their agent. Pre-listing and maintenance inspections are the exception to this.
We are in the home to help the buyer understand the condition of the home they are buying, and we are available for their questions. Any questions.
There is no such thing as a stupid question. A seemingly stupid question is our sign as inspectors that there is something about a home that you (the client) doesn't understand. We have not communicated ourselves as well as we should have, and we need to work better to help the client understand.
Does the inspector ever report to the seller? Yes. If we feel a situation is an overt danger to the occupants we will notify them immediately of the situation.
ASHI standards allow inspectors to report situations we feel are a serious safety hazard. Attempting to save a persons property or possibly their life is more important than a client's privilege. Additionally any serious deficiency should be fixed before a buyer closes on a home, and the seller will eventually need to know anyway.
Will the seller fix everything an inspector finds? No. In fact the seller may chose to fix nothing. The sellers and buyers obligations - pertaining to what an inspector finds - should be defined in the sales agreement. Ask your agent for a better explanation of your contract.
Many of the items listed in a report may be maintenance items, or may relate to a components age. Sellers may not want to fix things that are not broken. If a person is buying an older home - or even a new home - they must understand that up-keep of that home is part of their responsibility the day they move in.