How Long Should The Home Inspection Take?

Always remember that a thorough home inspection can never be done in an hour or less – no matter what the size of the home. As per the standard, a thorough inspection of the home on an averaged sized home i.e. 1500-2500 sq. ft. should last 2-4 hours. Thus, in no case, can a home inspector perform a thorough inspection in an hour or less, regardless of his or her qualifications, certifications, or experience.

Things to look out for
There are various home inspectors that claim and they often do the home inspection – irrespective of the size of the home – in an hour or less. Therefore, if you want to ensure a thorough and genuine inspection, you need to look into a number of things in order to make sure that the home inspector hired by you is not a one-hour inspector.

•Number of Home Inspections a day
The home inspectors who do the home inspection in an hour or less actually schedule too many inspections a day and rush through each home inspection to get to the next. Therefore, it is always prudent to go for the home inspector that performs one or two inspections a day. This way, you can make sure that the inspector will spend appropriate amount of time for home inspection.

•Not licensed or certified
If the home inspector is spending very little time on the home inspection, it is very much likely that he or she may not have the knowledge or experience to inspect a home properly. It is also very possible that the inspector is not licensed or certified. This might be the reason why the inspector is so fast in performing the inspection. Then it is worthless taking the services of such home inspectors because he or she may end up missing vital faults in the home or may even be oblivious to certain warning signs within a home.

•Have you priced them low?
Yes, this might also be the reason why the home inspector is taking so little time in doing the home inspection. If you have priced them low, they might not be very much dedicated towards the job. When it comes to home inspection, it simply means that if you pay them little, you are going to get little value as well. Again, if a home inspector is ready to work for you at a small fee, it is also possible that they are new to the field and are not very much experienced. This way, even if they take five hours of time to do the home inspection thoroughly, it is not going to be any worth for you.

Overall, it is very important for you to ensure that the an expert professional that you are hiring for home inspection does not inspect by the hour and instead does a thorough, diligent job.