Welcome to HomeInspectionPittsburgh.com: Your source for the best home inspection in the Pittsburgh, Pa area! Call 412-678-6696 to schedule your inspection today!
At Eagle Home Inspections, LLC, this is what you will get when you become our client:
- An accurate inspection at a fair price that will not only show you the current condition of your home, but teach you about how to properly maintain it now and in the future.
- Access to us on a monthly basis and the ability to learn about your home as well as ask us any questions that you may have, no matter how long ago we did your inspection.
- An honest job with your best interests in mind at all times, focusing on the items that may hurt you or cost you considerable money to repair or replace. All the while explaining the maintenance that should be done each month.
What’s Really Important When Choosing An Inspector?
When looking for a home inspection, there are many things that you will want to consider. The main thing would be is the inspector going to do a good job and look out for my best interest? Of course you are going to take price in to account, but in the end if the inspector does a bad job, does it matter that you got a great price? Usually if you are price shopping, most companies are going to be within $25-$50 of each other. If they are considerably less than that, please use someone else. You are buying one of the biggest investments that you will make in your lifetime, don’t trust it to someone that charges $200 or $250 for the inspection. If they charge this much less than the rest of the inspection companies, there is a reason. They are either new and inexperienced or they do a terrible job and nobody refers them. They’re really are no other reasons to charge less than what the going rate is. If they are new, they may do a good job, but wouldn’t you rather have an experienced inspector that has been around awhile? If they do a terrible job, then this should be enough for you to know to move on. The problem is that you won’t know until it’s too late. So why take the chance?
I’m not suggesting that you need to overspend for your inspection, you have every reason to shop around. You just don’t want to treat an inspection as a commodity. If you are buying milk or gasoline, price should be the main thing to look for. A home inspection is not the same. It amazes me when people call and ask how much do we charge for a home inspection and then say, “OK, I will call you back I’m price shopping”. I think to myself, you don’t even know anything about us or what we have to offer! If you were comparing milk and both were $3.00, but one was a gallon and one was a half gallon, wouldn’t that be something you should know before you buy it? You won’t overspend with us though, we always offer a fair price for a job that will be better than you could of imagined.
We at Eagle Home Inspections, LLC and have been in business over 10 years. We have done well over 5,000 home inspections in the Pittsburgh area and have a strong reputation for being very particular. Some love that we are very thorough and some, of course dislike it. Our main goal is to provide value to our clients. We are getting paid to do a job and if we do not do our job, then we do not deserve your money. When we are hired to do an inspection, we are working for that client and no one else. We will always be fair to all parties involved, but in the end, our client is the most important.
When scheduling your inspection, you can order a home inspection, pest inspection, as well as a radon test, sewer line video scan, septic test, well test, etc. Think of us as your one stop shop for all of your inspection needs.
What are some of the things that we will be looking for?
If you are from Pittsburgh, you already know that with our cold climates and significant rain fall each year, our houses go through a lot. The worst enemy of any house is water, and the failure to control it from a lack of maintenance. In my years as an inspector, I have seen water do substantial damage to a house. It is to the point that I can usually look at the outside of the home, look at the exterior grading, and adjacent vegetation or trees, and be able to tell what is going on inside of the house.
There are many factors that can affect the condition of a house. Each system of your new home: plumbing, electric, hvac, structure, roof, etc. all work together and can affect one another. You really want an inspection company that has the experience to look at each system and determine if they are in working order and not adversely affecting each other.
When me and my wife started Eagle Home Inspections in 1998, I was a union carpenter. I worked on multi-million dollar commercial buildings. I was a teacher at the Carpenter’s Training Center for the Union. I had extensive knowledge in the building trades and was around it my whole life. As much as this helped me, it didn’t teach me all that I needed to be a competent home inspector. I needed to study and learn so much more before I ever did my first inspection. I feel that I have always done a good job, but I often wonder what I didn’t know back then. I won’t tell you that I know everything, nobody does, but ten years and thousands of inspections later have taught me so much more than any book or week long training program ever could. Experience is vitally important when considering who will do your home inspection.
Houses have problems for several reasons:
- lack of maintenance: Most people do little to no maintenance on their homes. They usually change their furnace filter far less than they should, clean their gutters close to never, and if something is leaking, just put a bucket under it. I have come across some of the most clever ways to get around properly fixing things. In the end, lack of maintenance always cost more than properly maintaining your home. The good thing is that since you found this site, you don’t have to worry about home maintenance anymore. Why? Well, because once we finish your home inspection and go over many of the things that you should do each month, we will sign you up for the home maintenance reminder. This is a monthly reminder that you will get that not only teaches you what to do, it reminds you to do it! If you follow along with the home maintenance reminder, you will keep your house in great shape and save yourself money in the long run. If you ever have a question about your house and what you should be doing, you can always call us. We will be your consultant for life. Some people actually print these reminders out and check off what they did and when it was done. This serves as a record of the homes maintenance to show any future homebuyers. As you can see, I take home maintenance seriously because I see everyday the problems that not doing it causes.
- Homeowner handyman that does amateur work: I’m all for doing things yourself, but it is amazing the problems that we find everyday from someone inexperienced doing work that they have no business doing. There is a reason that it takes extensive training to be an electrician, plumber, or HVAC tech. If it was easy for anyone to do, you wouldn’t have to go to school to do it. Do you know that it takes years or schooling and on the job training to become a master plumber? Still everyday, I see someone with the basics skill of being able to glue plastic pipe together, try and play plumber. How about electrical work? Electricity can kill you or burn your house down and possibly kill you or your family. Pretty serious, I know. Still, many homeowners apparently try their hand at wiring and fail miserably. I actually saw two wires spliced together with duct tape, laying above a drop ceiling in a basement, under a leaking bathtub! I just think that some things should be left to the professionals, don’t you agree?
- The last thing that I want to discuss about houses and their problems is age: It’s not really a problem as much as the natural progression of a house. If the roof is twenty years old or older, there is a good chance that it needs replaced or will in the near future. Of course it depends on a lot of factors, especially the type of roof, but my point is that their is a typical life span for certain items. The roof, furnace, ac unit, main sewer stack, and water heater will not last indefinitely. Eventually they will all need to be replaced and this is something that you will want to take in to account when budgeting for future repairs.
A Home Inspection is a very necessary thing for all the people. This was great to know about the Home Inspection, anyways keep it up and keep continue.
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Thanks for a good post. It really reinforces the need to make sure you are prepared when buying or selling a home. As you know a home inspection can make the difference in a smooth transition and a total financial disaster.
That is excellent stuff. You actually have to submit it to Digg.
To obtain the top tradesmen I always make use of a specialist trades directory. That way I locate the perfect builder or carpenter for my needs.
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It is very important to choose a home inspector on knowledge and expertise–not just who’s offering the lowest price. If a buyer’s main goal is to save money, then they would be wise to pay the going rate for a skilled, experienced inspector. Otherwise, they will pay a lot more if they end up with foundation, electrical, or plumbing problems that could have been prevented.
I have one or two inspectors that I work with on a regular basis. Our relationship is built on trust and understanding what to expect from one another.
I never have to worry if the inspection was done right or not.
As a home owner that has owned a few different homes, I have been impressed and even disappointed in the different home inspectors that I have used before purchasing a new home. I agree that you get what you pay for. One of the most important things that you can do before you choose a home inspector is to ask around. One quick way is to check with a few real estate agents in your area to see if you can filter out the bad ones. They will usually speak up quickly if they have ever been burned by one.