When you want to buy or sell a home you will want to have a home inspection done. There are benefits to having this inspection done for the buyer and the seller. You don’t want to buy or sell a home without knowing this information. The importance of a home inspection for the buyer is just as important as for the seller. The benefits to having a home inspection done are that you will be able to find out everything about the home before you buy it. This will allow you to see the home up close so you know exactly what you are buying.

The advantages of a home inspection for the seller are that you will be able to find out about any previously unknown problems or potential upgrades so you can address them before you sell. It is always important to be aware of any issues in advance so you can disclose the problems to the buyer if you are not able to fix them. This will allow the transaction to go smoothly for everyone concerned.

Now that you know what the importance of a home inspection is you need to know how to get it done and what your role should be during the inspection. The seller is usually the one to get the home inspection done but the buyer can also have their own inspection done if they choose to. So if you want to get someone to inspect the home you will need to do a couple of different things.

You want to make sure that you hire a professional. Make sure that the inspector you use is a member of ASHI or American Society of Home Inspectors. This way you know you are getting someone that knows what they are doing. In Canada there are currently no mandatory certifications or legislative requirements for home inspectors, however there are industry associations such as The Canadian Association of Home and Property Inspectors (CAHPI). After the home inspection is done you want to make sure that you get a copy of the printed report. You can usually get the written report with no problems but you want to make sure that you ask about any photos that may have been taken during the inspection. It is a good idea to have a copy of both the report and photos.

Inspectors need to be very careful finding mold in the house. No matter where the inspection takes place, whether it be in the Bronx or anywhere else in New York, including Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Nassau County, Manhattan or Westchester, finding mold in the house and particularly black mold, can be a very dangerous occurrence. This has become a health issue that’s risen to the forefront of the resale home market across the country and this type of problem is currently on the minds of many home inspectors that work in the field.

While most inspectors are good at spotting evidence of basement leaks, there have been examples of severe mold found in basements where there was no evidence of leaking. This makes the problem especially dangerous as some of these molds are adept at hiding in walls and even under carpets in the basement. It’s a serious issue that home inspectors across the United States have taken great pains to learn about. In some cases, real estate deals have even fallen through because of mold.

The importance of detecting this cannot be overstated, as there are certain health risks to both the people who live in the house and the inspectors who look at them. There has been at least one documented case where an inspector had mold fall right onto his face and was subsequently sick for two weeks with a lung infection. Had that person been a baby or elderly individual, the outcome could have been much more serious.

The number one piece of advice for building inspectors and homeowners is do not disturb the mold. It is recommended that inspectors wear a respirator in seriously moldy areas, because repeated exposure to certain kinds can result in a heightened sensitivity to allergies. Almost any experienced inspector can identify conditions that tell of water entry or high water levels in a house. As well, an inspector should never assume there was never a flood or leak just because he or she cannot see the water stains.

While it is not the inspector’s job to look specifically for mold, it is their duty to report what they do find to the client. Because of recent environmental scares, several testing devices are on the market now that home inspectors can use to look for mold at their client’s locations. Some of these are not of the best quality and some even give a clean vindication of the air quality although that is not the case.