Home inspection questions, answered

No. An inspection is not a test with a passing grade. We document the condition of the home on the day we see it — material defects, safety concerns, and repairs that could become expensive — and explain what each one means for you. Every house has something. Finding it does not mean the house failed; it means you now have the information.

Plan on roughly three to four hours on site for a typical home, depending on its size, age, condition, and how accessible things are. You are welcome for all of it, but most buyers arrive near the end for the walkthrough. That is the part we encourage you to attend — seeing a concern in person is very different from reading about it later.

We meet you at the home and go through what we found in priority order rather than page order. Safety issues come first, then significant or costly repairs, then anything that deserves further evaluation. Routine maintenance items still go in the report, but they should not dominate the conversation. Bring questions: how serious is this, and who should look at it next?

It is a non-invasive visual examination of accessible areas. InterNACHI’s Standards of Practice, which our inspections follow, exclude concealed defects, underground systems, and anything that cannot be safely reached. Kentucky also requires our report to state that it does not address environmental hazards, and to list them — radon, asbestos, lead paint, mold, wood-destroying insects, water potability, and code compliance (831 KAR 2:030 §3(2)). Those need a qualified specialist.

A private septic system is mostly underground, so a standard inspection cannot evaluate every component, and the Standards of Practice exclude it. If the property has one, ask when the tank was last pumped and whether there are records. Older homes with buried sewer lines are often worth a sewer scope. Our report will tell you when something warrants that kind of follow-up.

Ask for them to be turned on before we arrive. Plumbing cannot be evaluated without water, or electrical systems without power, and the Standards of Practice do not require an inspector to operate a system that is shut down. This matters most on vacant properties, where a house that was not properly prepared for winter can hide burst supply piping until the water comes back on.

Yes. New construction involves a general contractor coordinating dozens of subcontractors, each responsible for one part of the house, and problems tend to appear where one trade’s work meets another’s. We regularly find unfinished work, punch-list items, and genuine defects in brand-new homes. Depending on the stage of construction, a pre-drywall inspection can also be worthwhile, before insulation and drywall cover things up.

No. The report is information, not a repair order. What happens next is negotiation: the seller may agree to make repairs, offer a price reduction, or decline entirely — and then you decide whether the purchase still makes sense. Some findings are worth pressing on and some are future maintenance, and telling those apart is much of what the walkthrough is for.

Write down anything that concerned you at the showing, and tell us what matters to you — small children, pets, a smell, a stain, a floor that did not feel level. Then ask the seller to make key areas reachable: electrical panels clear, access panels and crawl-space entrances not buried behind belongings. What we cannot get to, we cannot inspect.