Setting Reasonable Expectations for Your Home Inspection: Part 4

Remembering the Inspection Conditions

It's easy to forget the specific circumstances on the day of your home inspection. Homeowners might not remember that it was raining cats and dogs or that the house was filled with storage boxes.

These conditions can significantly affect what an inspector can check and how thoroughly they can inspect certain areas. Contractors coming in after the fact have no idea about these obstacles. They might find issues later and wonder why the inspector didn’t catch them, not realizing the challenges we faced during the initial inspection.

Understanding that the conditions on inspection day can impact our findings helps set more realistic expectations and clarifies why some things might have been missed. Our aim is to provide the most accurate assessment possible, given the circumstances at the time.

The Wisdom of Hindsight

It's easy to have perfect clarity after a problem has already surfaced. Anyone can point out that the basement is wet when there’s two feet of water on the floor. But predicting that problem before it happens? That’s a whole different ballgame.

As home inspectors, we do our best to foresee potential issues, but some problems only become obvious once they’ve already caused damage. It’s like looking back with 20/20 vision—everything seems clear in hindsight. However, our goal is to identify and warn you about as many potential issues as possible, even though we can't predict every single problem that might occur down the line.