As a consumer and homebuyer you have the right to know exactly what a Total Home Inspection is. The information presented here is intended give you a better understanding and guideline of exactly what your Total Home Inspector will and will not do for you during the course of an inspection.

First and foremost, a Total Home Inspection is a visual survey of those accessible areas that our inspector can see. No destructive testing or dismantling is done during the course of an inspection, hence a Total Home Inspector can only tell a client exactly what was in evidence at the time and date of the inspection. The inspector's eyes are not necessarily any better than the buyer's, except that the inspector is trained to look for specific tell-tale signs and clues that may lead to the discovery of actual or potential defects or deficiencies.

Standards

Total Home Inspectors base their inspections on the current industry standards provided to them by their professional societies (ASHI Standards) and the State of Connecticut's Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics (Connecticut Regulation). These standards tell what the Total Home Inspector will and can do, as well as what the Total Home Inspector will not and cannot do.

These standards clearly spell out specific areas in which the Total Home Inspector must identify various defects and deficiencies, as well as identifying the specific systems, components and items that are being inspected. There are many excluded areas noted in these standards on which the inspector does not have to report, for example: private water and sewer systems, solar systems, security systems, etc. A Total Home Inspector is not limited by, and often exceeds, those standards. If the Total Home Inspector can include additional inspection services, then they may perform as many specific inspection procedures as the client requests.

The Process

The careful step-by-step procedure of a Total Home Inspection may take up to, and in many cases exceed three hours to complete. You are encouraged to attend the inspection so that the details of the process and its findings can be expressed to you face to face, as the inspection is taking place. A Total Home Inspector will always take pleasure in explaining the operation of all systems within the real property or prospective real property, and describing the possible ramifications of his findings. He will also, in your presence, make every effort to locate and identify important emergency valves, switches and buttons. While the inspection does not in any way represent a guarantee or warranty, a Total Home Inspection represents the industry's finest pre-purchase measure of confidence available to a buyer.

A Total Home Inspector will provide you with as much information as is practically possible about the real property's observable current condition, including but not limited to the grounds, interior and exterior characteristics, and the mechanical and electrical components. Your Total Home Inspector will give you an unbiased and frank opinion and a clear picture of the property's strengths and weaknesses - even estimating the life expectancy of the essential systems within the house itself - in a detailed written report. Our reports will tell you not only what we have observed, but what we could not observe. We'll make recommendations and offer opinions and we'll explain what we mean in language you can understand and appreciate.

Because your time is valuable, we'll complete your report and make it available to you by midnight of the day the inspection was conducted! We'll fax or e-mail them to you upon request, and send them to you by conventional mail the very next day.

Specialized Testing

Total Home Inspection offers testing services for radon levels in the air, radon levels in the water, volatile organic chemicals in the water, basic water analysis, lead levels in the water, and other environmental concerns. These services are recommended except in special circumstances, and we can describe the processes and their relative importance to you.

Every Total Home Inspection includes a detailed wood-destroying insect report. By extensive probing for termites, carpenter ants, powder post beetles and other wood destroying pests, the inspector will issue a report and add to your confidence that the buying decision you make will be the right one.

For real properties with oil-fired heating plants, Total Home Inspection includes a comprehensive evaluation of the boiler and/or furnace, the heating system and all its components by Standard Oil, Fairfield County's most reputable provider of heating oil and heating services. This effort can dramatically reduce unforeseen and costly expenses in the years to come.

Our Inspectors

A Total Home Inspector is a highly trained and experienced professional - an agent dedicated to finding and evaluating clues which may portend potential problems or dangers in the property in question. His skills have been developed through broad experience and are honed through intensive continuing education. His astute observations of a broad spectrum of electrical, mechanical, material and structural conditions will serve you well in the negotiation process, and may save you thousands of dollars in the lifetime cost of your real property or prospective real property.

A Total Home Inspector will not simply identify where you may be at risk. He is committed to finding the good as well, helping you to assess the true and possibly hidden values in your real property or prospective real property.

Total Home Inspectors are respecters as well. We treat the properties we inspect with kid gloves, leaving the property in the same condition as it was entered. Our inspectors wear booties or slippers to protect carpets and floors, because to us, the property is someone's home (perhaps soon to be yours) ...and our mothers raised us to behave ourselves when we are guests in someone's home.

Relationship Building

A client's relationship with Total Home Inspection does not end when the inspection and report are complete and in hand. At Total Home Inspection, we consider ourselves home consultants to our clients for as long as they own the real property we inspected for them. If ever a question should arise or our clients should be in need of counsel or clarification we are eager to serve them to the best of our ability, or guide them to where they can best be served.

Call us today. Our telephones are answered by knowledgeable and informed professionals who consider it their mission to walk you through the process, answer questions in detail and find a way to serve you as you wish to be served. With a Total Home Inspection you can move forward in an informed manner, confidently making one of the most important and consequential decisions in your life. Because that's what we do at Total Home Inspection - we create confidence.

Some of the information presented above was excerpted and annotated from SPREI's "What is a real estate inspection?"