Is a cheap inspection a good idea?
Penny wise, pound foolish
TheChronicleHerald.ca
Sadly, the home inspection industry in our area is still unregulated and this has made the hiring of a competent home inspector that much more challenging.
Q) Why is there a difference in pricing between some home inspectors?
A) The first question I tend to be asked is how much do I charge for a home inspection. Although I can appreciate the need for people to find ways to minimize the extra costs associated with purchasing a home, it is so important to remind everyone that the largest investment of their lifetime should not be based on the cheapest home inspector they can find.
Sadly, the home inspection industry in our area is still unregulated and this has made the hiring of a competent home inspector that much more challenging.
And to further complicate matters, the Internet is rife with offers on how to become a "Certified Home Inspector" by taking a two-week training course. Ironically, having a background in any of the building construction trades is not considered a prerequisite.
Whenever I am reminded of these two-week wonders, the best analogy I can think of comes from an article Ron Sawlor wrote a couple of years ago (The Business and Art of Home Inspection), in which he was surprised and disturbed to discover that some home inspectors in our area had little training and/or very few qualifications.
In this article, he wrote: "Even were I to attend an excellent, two-week training course in how to inspect used cars for potential problems for prospective buyers, at the end of such a course I would not be able to bring to this task the degree of experience and knowledge of someone who has worked on vehicles for a significant portion of their lives. While it would be quite possible for me, after this hypothetical training course to identify some problems and perform an inspection that might yield some useful results, I could never compare to someone with true, directly-related, hands-on familiarity and experience. This seems quite obvious and logical, so I was surprised to learn of the small amount of training required to achieve certification as a home inspector . . ." (The Contractor’s Desk — Volume 17, No 1, page 6).
The majority of all professionals, in whatever sector or industry they are in, tend to charge the same amount for the same type of service. This can be said with the fees associated with home inspections; with some minor differences that is usually to do with the age, type or size of the home, or if an infrared camera is being used.
Unfortunately, these rookie home inspectors know how difficult it is to compete with a competent/established home inspector, so they tend to offer ‘discounts’ in order to attract potential clientele.
But this could end up with a bad case of being penny wise and pound foolish, as the less-expensive home inspector tends to be quite inexperienced and any potential missed or overlooked deficiency could end up costing that home buyer significantly more than they ended up saving.
Ultimately, when it comes to hiring a competent home inspector, you should consider much more than just the price they are charging.
The most reliable indication of a home inspector’s qualifications is if they are a member of the Canadian Association of Home and Property Inspectors, which operates in our region as CAHPI-Atlantic ( www.cahpi-atl.com).
To become a member of this association, inspectors must meet minimum professional and educational requirements, as well as successfully complete a proctored National Home Inspection Exam, plus have their reports verified as having met specific quality standards and then perform a test inspection, followed by a peer review.
Only those competent inspectors who have met these rigorous requirements are entitled to call themselves Registered Home Inspectors. Using a CAHPI Registered Home Inspector (RHI) is your assurance that you are working with the highest quality and trained home inspection professional in Nova Scotia.
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