Your Inspection
What to expect from your inspection.
Whether you are buying, selling, or maintaining your home, North Star Home Inspections provides professional and quality service from the moment you call us. Our certified home inspectors will walk through your home with you and teach you as much as you want to learn. We strictly follow the Standards of Practice for home inspectors established by InterNACHI, the leading home inspection association.
After we walk through the home together, we will explain the general condition of the home and systems with you and your agent. We will talk through any major issues that need to be addressed sooner rather than later. We will also mention the items that you will want to keep an eye on for deferred maintenance. All of this will be detailed in our easy-to-read report, which will be delivered in HTML and/or PDF format. From that report, you will be able to see the items we discussed, with images for reference.
What's Inspected?
North Star Home Inspections thoroughly inspects and reports on the following:
Structural Systems
Foundations, grading & drainage, basements, walkways, and floor, wall and ceiling structures.
Roofing
Roof coverings, drainage systems, flashings and skylights, chimneys and other roof penetrations.
Electrical Systems
Service entrance and panels, branch circuits, connected devices and fixtures, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and making sure your outlets are GFCI-protected.
Plumbing
Fixtures and faucets, water supply systems, drain, waste and vent systems, water heater, vents, flues and chimneys, and any sump pumps or fuel storage and distribution systems.
Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Systems
Heating and cooling equipment, ducts, vents and flues.
Appliances
Dishwasher, garbage disposal, range hood, range or oven, cooktop, microwave, trash compactor, bathroom exhaust fans, garage door operator, and other built-in appliances.
Service Descriptions and Pricing for North Star Home Inspections
Residential Home Inspection – Standard – Price: $500
This is the core service that most home inspectors offer, however, by choosing North Star, you will have confidence that all major systems have been inspected and their condition thoroughly communicated back to you. When possible, North Star will sometimes go beyond a mere visual inspection in order to serve clients. The basic points-of-inspection include the roof, that attic or crawl space (if safely accessible), the interior walls, stairs and doors, locks and windows, the plumbing, electrical, the foundation (interior and exterior), exterior drainage, the HVAC, the major appliances, the fireplace (if present) and other safety related concerns (e.g., handrails, steps, etc.). In order to maintain high standards, North Star relies upon a standards-of-practice (SOP) by one of the industry’s professional associations (https://www.nachi.org/sop.htm ) This assures that your report will contain recommendations and clearly communicate deficiencies, if any exist.
Elderly Occupant Safety Check (EOSC) – Price: $500
There are times when a remote loved one wants “eyes-on” mom or dad’s living conditions. This helps them to achieve aging in place (AIP) while giving their loved ones confidence they can do this safely. Since any one of the major systems can drift into an unsafe condition, this inspection is the same as the Standard Inspection. See the description above; a special emphasis will be given to safety conditions for an elderly or handicapped person. This may include (for example) recommendations related to eliminating trip hazards, a recommendation to add handrails, door thresholds, window or stair safety or locks and other related items. Additionally, maintenance concerns can be brought to light, knowing that often, neglect can simply increase the cost of a repair.
Landlord Support or “Tenant Check-in/Check-Out Service” – Price: $500
As with the EOSC (described above), any one of the major systems in a rented home can migrate into an unsafe condition or a level of disrepair (which reduces the owner’s ROI); the Tenant Check-in/Check-out service is designed to inspect all major systems as with the standard inspection but will emphasize details that are more common for a tenant-oriented occupancy. For example, a baseline condition can be established at check-in and then, six months or one year later, it may be helpful to document the fact that the HVAC filters have been periodically changed (usually part of a lease agreement for the tenant). If not, this deficiency will need to be documented for all parties. This Service can often be bidirectionally informative, i.e., there may be tasks that a tenant should be attending to and/or there may be tasks that an owner may want to fix or repair? Tenants often want a third party to document this at a given point in time.
Quarterly Maintenance Check-in – Price: $1,660
This service is intended to give you peace of mind that each quarter a professional has put “eyes-on” the premises and observed all critical systems to be in good working order (GWO). Each of the visits (i.e., one per quarter or every three months for one year) will record observations that need your attention, if any exist. This will help keep your loved-ones safe and secure. A report will be provided to you electronically. This allows you to remotely monitor living quarters for mom, dad, aunts, uncles, or any loved-one who needs a second pair of eyes or specific encouragement on maintenance issues related to a given home. Price: $1,660 for all four visits, one per quarter. (Quarterly Note: Assumes the home is within the NSHI service area; call or message with questions).
Energy Efficiency Estimate Report – $99
This report is ancillary (i.e., an add-on) to the primary home inspection for those who want to know the energy efficiency of a given home. By using data elements already collected during the standard inspection, you may elect to have this data forwarded to a highly specialized third-party ops team (based in the United States) who will use their super computers and trained AI algorithms to produce a graphical report that estimates the energy efficiency of the inspected home. This is highly useful information knowing that energy consumption is annually estimated in the tens-of-thousands of dollars. It is prudent to establish a baseline, that yields data that is very useful for planning and upgrading. Thus, an owner knows (for example) the best timing for taking tax credits (for energy efficient appliances). See this blog entry for more details.
Do you have a Special Circumstance? Message us and NSHI will respond quickly with a quote that reflects your situation. Contact Dan on dan@northstar-homeinspections.com
