Robert Gwaltney has seen some scary things in his 12 years as a home inspector.
"We've seen foundations crumbling, electrical things that we look at and wonder why the house hasn't burned down," he said. "Lots of times people take off the cover plate [of an electrical outlet] to paint or put on wallpaper and their kids can walk up and put their fingers in."
Gwaltney, the president of Old Dominion Home Inspections, Inc. in Vienna, recalled a house in which the furnaces had been switched. The bigger furnace was supposed to go in the basement and the smaller one in the attic. Instead, he said, "the delivery guys reversed it." the bigger furnace was in the attic and the smaller one in the basement. "Neither one of them would run as efficiently as they could," he said.
IN THE LONG and sometimes difficult process of buying a home, it is easy to overlook the home inspection stage, especially if the house is brand new. After all, inspections are not required and cost between $300 to $350. But home inspectors and Realtors strongly discourage people to put a lot of money down on a house that has not been properly inspected first.
"Anyone purchasing a home, whether it's new or previously owned should get one," said Gwaltney.
Esther Pryor, a Realtor with Avery Hess in Vienna and the chairman of the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, said that home inspections can also be educational for buyers, particularly first-time homebuyers.
"When I bought my first house I didn't know anything," she said. "I didn't know how to turn the hot water off if something burst. The home inspector goes in and educates the buyer. He gives the buyer hints."
Some inspectors will also give buyers a book with home maintenance advice.
"A home inspection isn't perfect but it shows you a lot of good stuff," she said. "So we highly recommend our clients do it."
Most of the clients in her office took their Realtor up on the suggestion, she added.
Pryor also said home inspections have become more common since she first started in the real estate business in 1985.
Although county inspectors visit homes, a private inspection can pick up things the county staff might have missed, said Gwaltney.
"We have the luxury of having more time that the county inspectors are allotted," he said, adding: "In no way do I want to say the county inspectors aren't doing a good job."
CONTRARY TO what one might expect, inspectors find a lot of problems in new homes as well.
"The quality of the work has gone down tremendously but on the other hand now you have affordable homes," said James Manion, an inspector with U.S. Inspect in Chantilly who specializes in new homes.
"A lot of people that grew up in the trades can't stay in the trades anymore," he said because of declining wages for skilled craftsmen.
"We now build homes that are plastic and cardboard."
Manion often looks at properties in the construction phase, before the drywall has gone up. He alerts the builder and the buyer whenever he finds problems but, he said, many times the inspector and the buyer have to rely on the builder's word that he has addressed the matter after the drywall goes up.
"You're at a disadvantage because the homes are not completed," he said.
After years in the business, Manion knows which faults developers are likely to commit most, he said.
"There are some builders where I can write the list [of problems] sitting in the driveway before I walk in," he said.