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• Jul 10, 2007 12:08 am US/Central
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  I-TEAM: Inspecting Home Inspectors

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I-TEAM: Inspecting Home Inspectors

(WCCO) Our homes are the biggest investment of our lives. So before we buy, we want to know exactly what we're getting. Sellers need to hire home inspectors, too. However, with no state rules in Minnesota an inspection depends on who is hired.

Roger Hankey is a past president of the local chapter of the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI), one of the only organizations that tests and certifies home inspectors.

"ASHI's credentialing is the longest established and most viable for really producing credentials for the public to rely on," said Hankey.

Hankey's been inspecting homes since December 1975. So we asked him to inspect a house first, to use his inspection report as a guideline.

Then we used undercover cameras to check out two other inspectors we hired. We ended up with very different results, starting with the crawl space.

Hankey found a problem here.

"It's really wet down there," said Hankey.

Water is one of the biggest worries for homeowners and this could be a significant problem if not addressed.

John Weiss of Eastern Evaluations, one of the inspectors we hired, also noted the problem in the crawl space.

"That should be written out in the report," Weiss said.

However, Andy Valdmanis of All American Building Inspections did not even look in the crawl space.

We asked what that might mean if an inspector doesn't find that space?

"Maybe he didn't spend enough time here. The plumbing went somewhere that way and it should have been looked into," Weiss said.

Details are crucial. While home inspections serve as a guideline for home buyers or sellers, facts about water damage and other things like carbon monoxide can paint a picture of serious problems.

The flue on your water heater helps guide carbon monoxide out of the house.

Hankey, Weiss and Valdmanis all noted that the flue needed to be lowered on one end, a problem that needed to be fixed.

Hankey tested every appliance for carbon monoxide leaks.

"If you don't test you don't know," he said. "So the furnace gets tested, the water heater gets tested, if the oven is gas it gets tested."

Inspectors are not required to do these tests, but many can, so you should ask.

The biggest difference between the three home inspections was the amount of time each inspector took looking around.

According to several home inspection agencies an average homebuyer's inspection should take two to four hours.

Hankey and Weiss spent that long looking around the home but Valdmanis arrived nearly an hour late then spent less than an hour inspecting.

No Licenses Required In Minnesota
Home inspectors don't need to be licensed in Minnesota. Anyone can be an inspector. So the only way you can determine someone's qualifications is to look for a professional certification, one that they didn't just pay for but that they earned by taking classes and passing exams.

Right now Minnesota has no plans to require inspectors to be licensed.

Other states like Wisconsin require some level of state supervision. When the state started to require competency testing, the number of home inspectors dropped from 990 to 274. As of July 10, there are 552 licensed inspectors.

Weiss is one of those licensed in Wisconsin.

"I think licensing is a good thing, it allows everybody to pass a minimum level of knowledge," said Weiss.

Weiss and Valdmanis are also members of the Minnesota Society of Housing Inspectors. Members pay a membership fee and agree to abide by certain standards but they don't have to meet any qualifications and there is no exam and no continuing education requirements.

So look for someone who is certified by a professional agency like the American Society of Home Inspectors. ASHI requires home inspectors to pass a national exam and have a sample of their reports reviewed. Members must also agree to abide by a set of standards and ethics. You can find a complete list of requirements for various certifying agencies and a list of questions to ask a home inspector at Terri's blog.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)