Pre-Purchase Home Inspection

The one inspection you get before the money moves

Your offer is accepted and the inspection contingency window opens. For the next several days you have the right to find out what you're actually buying, and after that the house and everything in it is yours. That's the entire window, and it's the reason this inspection matters more than any other appointment in the transaction.

We treat it that way. A typical residential inspection runs up to three hours depending on the size, type, and age of the property. Larger homes may get more than one inspector on site. What we don't do is a forty-minute walk-through with a clipboard and a boilerplate summary.

What we evaluate

• ✓ Structure and foundation: Foundation walls, visible framing, floors, settlement and movement, and the crawlspace or basement conditions that reveal what's happening underneath.
• ✓ Roof and exterior: Roof covering, flashing, chimney, gutters and downspouts, siding, trim, windows, and the grading and drainage that decide where water goes.
• ✓ Electrical: Service entrance and capacity, panel and breakers, visible wiring, grounding, GFCI and AFCI protection, and the outdated components common in older Akron-area homes.
• ✓ Plumbing: Supply and drain materials, functional flow and drainage, water heater age, venting and relief valve, visible leaks, and the shutoffs you'll want to know the location of.
• ✓ HVAC: Heating and cooling equipment, age and condition, venting and combustion air, accessible ductwork, and remaining service life. When the system deserves a deeper look, a dedicated HVAC inspection goes further.
• ✓ Insulation, ventilation, and interior: Attic insulation levels and ventilation, exhaust termination, moisture evidence, and the interior surfaces, stairs, railings, and doors throughout the home.

What older Northeast Ohio homes tend to hide

Much of Akron's housing stock went up in the 1920s and 1930s, and those homes come with a recognizable set of issues. Galvanized water supply lines that have narrowed to the diameter of a pencil. Knob-and-tube wiring still energized behind plaster. Original service panels with a fuse box tucked in a closet. Second and third roof layers hiding decking that should have been replaced.

None of these are automatic reasons to walk away. Plenty of these houses are excellent buys. But they belong in your budget before closing rather than in a surprise quote in your second year of ownership, and that's what the report is for.

A report you can act on, not decode

Every finding comes with an annotated photo showing exactly what we're talking about and a description written in plain language. When something needs a specialist, we say which trade and why. When something is normal wear for the age of the home, we say that too, because a report that treats everything as urgent is as useless as one that treats nothing that way.

Come along if you can. Clearing your schedule to attend is the single best thing a buyer can do, because seeing an item in person makes the photo in the report make sense weeks later when you're deciding what to negotiate and what to live with.

The limits, stated up front

A home inspection is a visual, non-invasive evaluation. We don't open walls, move the seller's furniture, dig up buried lines, or dismantle sealed equipment. What is genuinely hidden stays hidden until it surfaces, which is exactly why the thoroughness of the person doing the looking matters so much.

Some things fall outside a standard inspection and are worth adding: radon testing, since Summit County sits in EPA Zone 1, wood destroying insect inspection, and mold testing when there's a history of moisture. We'll tell you which ones your specific house actually warrants.