When I tell people I meet that I’m a home inspector, they most often have a strangely puzzled look on their face. “What does that mean?” “I inspect homes for people, usually before they buy them but not always.”

It seems like a vast majority of people, unless they happen to be in the real estate business don’t even consider the idea of a home inspection or hiring a home inspector. Even tradespeople don’t quite realize its a profession. So, when I meet somebody who seems genuinely interested in what it is that I do, I have fun explaining it.

Whether you’re in San Antonio, New Braunfels, or any other region of the country, a home inspector is someone you hire to not only inspect your home for safety and code violations, but provides you with a glance into the home’s overall condition, possible future problems, and advice on how to best maintain the home.

First, the home inspector uses their knowledge, training, skills, and tools to perform the inspection. While home inspectors in the San Antonio area and Texas in general have a specific set of standards that they must adhere to, how a home inspector approaches the inspection depends on the inspector. As a former builder and college-educated construction manager, I’ve had experience with call-backs and repairs that I’ve personally performed on peoples homes, leading me to approach the home inspection and what problem areas I make sure to inspect in a different manner than someone who worked in an office or the military for 20 years before retiring and doing something new.

The home inspector visually, audibly, and physically observes, inspects, and tests various components of the home, using a variety of methods depending on the material or component being inspected. While tools are necessary for the home inspector and often incredible time savers, the tools are just that: tools. More important than the tool is the individual using it, so fancy gadgets like drone cameras, thermal imaging cameras, moisture meters, etc. will only give you information if you know how to use them and often will only confirm something that you already suspect.

During the course of the inspection, the inspector is documenting their findings with textual explanations and photography. Most inspectors use tablets or mobile devices along with inspection software to prepare the report as we are in the field and document our findings in real time. By the end of the inspection, most inspectors are more than halfway done with the report and will take it home to check for typos and fine tuning. Some inspectors will even deliver a report on-site after they finish the inspection. We shy away from this practice because we like to double-check our work to ensure a quality report with accurate information and few typos.

Once the report is finished and sent to the client, a good home inspector will be available to answer any questions or concerns of a home-buyer or home-seller. As consultants, our job is to ensure that our client makes an educated decision on whether to move forward on a home or what repairs need to be made to a home to bring it up to code and make it safe. The home inspectors job isn’t finished until the client has made their decision, and even then home inspectors doing good business will continue to be available to provide support to their clients in the future and answer their home-ownership related questions.