Ron Reid, one of the local (Alamo, Danville, San Ramon, Pleasanton,, Walnut Creek) home inspectors we use has been kind enough to share a letter he sends out to homeowners and agents prior to a home inspection to make sure everything goes smoothly at the inspection.

Thank you for placing your Home Inspection order with Gold Seal Inspection scheduled for Thursday July 17th at 2:00 pm.  After 14 years in the inspection business, we have seen many cycles in the real estate market.  We are now in a time where some changes are in order to make both the inspector and real estate agent professionally successful.

Currently we as inspectors are experiencing a 93% rate of the utilities being OFF at the time of our inspection appointment.  Buyers are now vocalizing their dissatisfaction at this event.   Gold Seal Inspection will always make a return trip to finish the inspection once the utilities are restored.  However, please keep in mind that our fee for returning for the re-inspection is $195.  We request that the $ 195 fee be paid at the time of re-inspection only; escrow billing of this fee has been fruitless. 
 
For liability reasons, inspectors routinely DO NOT turn on any utilities.   That would include; water mains and house valves, main and sub electrical panels, and gas mains or light gas fixtures. Homes that are vacant for any length of time require an on-site utility professional to restore the house to working order for safety reasons. 
 
Your may also encounter homes that have been WINTERIZED after being vacant for a period of time.  This means that a pluming contractor has turned off all utilities, removed flexible gas lines and drained the water heater.  In some cases, padlocks have been placed on utility access points that prevent vandalism.
 
Re-establishing utility service in some cases take up to 2 weeks.
 
Please make every effort to ensure that all utilities are turned on prior to scheduling a home inspection for the sake of all of us, especially your buyers.
 
If you require help in determining if a utility is active while you are on-site, don’t hesitate to call us.
 
Respectfully,
 
Ron Reid
Gold Seal Inspection

Having the utilities on for a home inspection sounds like common sense doesn’t it? Ron told me that with all of the bank owned properties and foreclosures on the market these days, situations like this are cropping up more and more.

It seems incredible that an upset home buyer would throw a rock through a Realtors windshield or throw a clipboard at their real estate agent – but, Ron has actually witnessed these events. Home buyers don’t like showing up for an appointment and discover that their real estate agent wasn’t competent enough to insure the utilities were on.

Ron is one of the few home inspectors in the area that is actually a licensed general contractor. If your inspector says they are a licensed contractor ask for their license number.