ONE HOME INSPECTOR IS NOT THE SAME AS ANOTHER

                      
Member 249171                                                Member 6082094
10 Years                                                                            12 Years

BYRON DUERKSEN, ACI, CMI

707.245.7545 (cell/text) or 707.987.9970 (office)

ASHI CERTIFIED INSPECTOR * NACHI CERTIFIED MASTER INSPECTOR
HUD/FHA 203(k) INSPECTOR
CERTIFIED THERMOGRAPHER * CERTIFIED MOLD/RADON/AIR QUALITY TESTING
ERRORS & OMMISSIONS INSURANCE * GENERAL LIABILITY

     

Welcome to Housecheck Inspection Services, beginning our seventeenth year, and dedicated to meeting your highest expectations for a home inspection.   Housecheck is my own company, not an out-of-state franchise, nor a company of minimally qualified employees or subcontractors.  You can be confident in knowing what and who you are getting.

HARD TO BEAT

I am Byron Duerksen, An ASHI Certified Inspector with the American Society of Home inspectors and a Board Certified Master Inspector with the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, and the most experienced home inspector you can find.  I am an FHA/HUD Consultant and Inspector.  Also, I am the only home inspector to offer thermal imaging which sees what the eyes cannot.

Home buyers can sometimes be unrealistic in their expectations of a home inspection.  Of course, nobody actually schools buyers on what the limitations and exceptions are to a home inspection.  Many real estate agents do not know either.

Choosing the cheapest inspection could be the most expensive mistake you'll ever make.  Home repairs can be some of the costliest expenses consumers face.  The few dollars you think you could save may cost you thousands of dollars down the road because of missed or overlooked defects, some of which can injure or even kill you.

I was called in to re-inspect two different properties within a 2 mile radius of my house.  In the first house, the new owner had to put on a new roof that cost him over $12,000 even though the original inspection report  stated "Roof Condition - AS"  (assume that means appears serviceable).  Another new buyer had literally months of sewage under her house and the two week old inspection report stated "Crawl Space - AS."  She paid several hundred dollars for plumbing.  Incidentally, I do not use check boxes or secret codes, just plain English along with pictures.

The report is a direct reflection of the inspector's knowledge and expertise.  Judge the home inspector by the quality of the Inspection Report which should speak for itself.  A professional report is well written, skillfully prepared, and leaves nothing to your imagination.  It should be well organized and systematically cover every room, component and system.  It should not require anyone to interpret it.

Poor reports come in an incomprehensible variety of formats.  Some are a 12 to 20 pages check boxes which are inadequate for your analysis. While other reports can be a disorganized volume of comments and pictures, with redundancies as well as omissions, that will leave you confused and unsure.  The report is the KEY!  Make sure you look at a sample report.

My reports are specific to your property with no fillers added. My report is designed to walk you through each area of the house and show you what I saw and report on it right then and there.

You couldn't put a price of your family's health and safety.  Your home inspection costs very little but it will tell you a whole lot.  It's worth much more than the inspection fee.  My fees are reasonable and affordable, and depend on the perceived amount of time it will take to inspect the property and to produce a fully documented report.

Assuming that you will get the same level of inspection and comprehensive report regardless of the fee is a pitfall you should avoid.  That simply isn’t true.  Shopping for quotes doesn’t begin to tell you what you need to know.   You need to get the most for your money.

Crumbling Chimney in Attic         Scary Crawl Space

What sets Housecheck apart - (1) locally owned and operated, (2) highest level certifications, (3) advanced continuing education, (4) extensive home inspection experience, (5) professional, high-quality, detailed reports, (6) errors and omissions insurance, (7) a 90 day warranty, (8) thermal imaging, and (9) a walk-around with the inspector.

To make sure you’re not buying a money pit, you need a professional home inspection before you commit.

A home inspector who does not require a signed a legal contract for an inspection has NO insurance and you are at risk for any potential errors or oversights in the report.  Without an Agreement and attached Standards of Practice, you do not know what you are getting. 

We stand behind every inspection we do with errors and omissions insurance and with a 90 day warranty.  After you receive your report, if you would like to discuss any part of it, we would be happy to open the PDF on our screen while you are looking at yours, and review any section on which you do not feel you have a clear understanding.  You would be hard pressed to find another inspector who does all of this.

You have the right to have the home you are purchasng professionally inspected. If something is wrong, you can request it be fixed, negotiate a better price or you can back out of the sale.  The home inspection fee is a drop in the bucket considering the costly home issues that may be revealed by a professional inspection.

The importance of having access to all the relevant information on a house before making a purchase decision should not be underestimated.  Equally important is getting information that is accurate, complete, and unbiased. It is to provide you with total disclosure before you close escrow, to let you know what you are buying, before you buy it.

DON'T SETTLE FOR LESS THAN THE BEST

Continuing education separates a professional home inspector from all others.  I never stop learning.  I take audited classes and proctored exams.  It is necessary to keep abreast of new materials, advanced methods, code changes and different applications.  I have attended Conferences and Seminars all over the United States to obtain advanced education.

I use state of the art equipment: tablets, drones, infrared camera, laser devices, and the most sophisticated software utilizing the Cloud, in order to conduct the highest quality inspection and produce the finest report available.

On a personal note, I have lived in this area for 20 years, have participated in building homes through Habitat for Humanity in Clearlake, am a Deacon in my church, a School Board Member K - 8 for six years and I love my family and my work.

ONE HOME INSPECTOR IS NOT THE SAME AS ANOTHER

Let me tell you what you need to know when choosing a home inspector.  There are no regulations in place for home inspecting in California.   In most cases your real estate agent will give you the best advice but as in any profession, there are those who are only focused on their own bottom line and promote inspectors who may not be completely qualified or may be unethical.  There is no law against that.  Yet.

Do your own due diligence before engaging the services of any inspector.  One home inspector is not the same as another.  California does not license home inspectors, ever.  An inspector is either Certified or fly-by-night.  A true professional carries liability as well as errors and omissions insurance and insurance companies require a signed service agreement for each inspection.  A Certified inspector must be a member-in-good-standing in a national organization which requires annual continuing education.  

I am a seasoned professional, having conducted thousands of inspections in Northern California's wine country in the last sixteen years.  The dictionary defines a "professional" as "skilled, proficient, knowledgeable, prepared, talented, competent, and experienced," in other words, a master of his craft.  I've taught classes in national conferences for Licensed Home Inspectors in Washington, Oregon and Nevada.

I look at everything I can during an inspection; mechanical and plumbing systems, doors, windows, electrical panels, attics, crawl spaces and the roof.  I look for signs of water damage or moisture intrusion as well as missing or falling insulation. And, I look at the construction of the deck.  Many look beautiful but are not built correctly and are dangerous.

                                            
                                                                        Deck Collapses in North Bay

My reputation has been built on professionalism, integrity and the highest qualifications.  I promise you'll get a thorough inspection backed by a 90 day warranty and covered by errors and omissions insurance, with unmatched customer service and an easy-to-read detailed 60+ page report which covers every room, system and component with lots of pictures

Don't let anyone mislead you by claiming to be a State Certified or a Licensed and Bonded home inspector because there is no such thing.  Only in California can somebody be a dog catcher on Tuesday and be a home inspector on Wednesday, and I promise you I'm not making this up.  

WHEN YOU WANT THE BEST, THE CHOICE IS CLEAR

As a professional, I maintain my long standing memberships in the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) and the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors (NACHI), the two largest and most prominent national home inspector associations who set the standards for industry-wide protocols.

As a former contractor, I can tell you that home inspecting demands far more detailed education in every discipline than a general contractor.  A professional home inspector must possess a unique combination of disciplines, skills and education involving many elements that are particularly complex in order to perform the very detailed job of investigating a home’s structure and components.
 

MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE REAL ESTATE TRANSACTION

An inspection, like a diagnosis, is not the place for bargain hunting.  Choosing the cheapest inspection could be the most expensive mistake you'll ever make.   You need an all inclusive, easy to read and understand home inspection report in PDF and Hard Copy, with a 90 day warranty, by an experienced professional.  Less that that is a waste of your money.

The home purchase is too expensive to risk not knowing what you are buying in order to save a few dollars.  The inspection costs relatively little compared to real estate commissions and down payments, but "the home inspection is the most important part of the real estate transaction" according to Consumer Reports Magazine.

If an inspector offers to do the inspection for an extremely low fee, but only gives you a verbal report and offers to throw in his hand written notes -- RUN.  Worst case scenario, the house collapses around you in the first rain storm, and you have no legal recourse.  You can't prove a thing.

Identifying potential problems with a home's infrastructure or its major systems before close of escrow can ultimately save thousands of dollars in repair costs.  Current or potential issues that are identified during the home inspection can then be used as a negotiating tool.  A seller might reduce his price, or may even fix the problem before the close.

I won't minimize the issues to please someone involved in the transaction whose agenda may be different from yours.  Neither will I exaggerate the extent of the issues in hopes of getting the repair work which is an illegal practice.  The State prohibits home inspectors from repairing properties that they have inspected.  I will report to you exactly what I find.

CALIFORNIA HAS A FULL DISCLOSURE LAW

This law requires the seller to disclose all known issues.  The home inspection report also becomes part of the disclosures but is separate from the seller's form and is not meant to be a substitute for it.  The home inspection may reveal an issue or several issues that had not been disclosed by the seller, or may even be unknown to the seller.  All disclosures are available to anybody interested in the property.

Let Housecheck provide you with the most qualified inspector and the most comprehensive report you can find.   It's the difference between your peace of mind and nagging doubts.