Home Inspectors

Home Inspection
Ottawa ON K2H 9R6
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Reviews for Home Inspectors

Average customer rating:
9.2 10 (33 reviews)

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Lionel from Nepean
Lionel from Nepean
1 review Nepean, ON
10/10

Pre-purchase inspection

I may have been one of Paul's fastest inspections. We were looking at purchasing a fixer upper, and knew that the house we were looking at needed work. He arrived early and had already done a preliminary walk around outside before we arrived. Before he started the inspection he asked a lot of questions, and specifically what our estimated budget was for repairs. (70-100K)
Starting outside he quickly noticed a number of serious issues with the roof, the garage, the foundation, and once in the basement, confirmed what he probably knew already...fixing the house would far surpass our budget. I have personally taken most of the home inspection courses, have built a house and renovated many, but Paul noticed numerous things that I totally missed. I guess this is what 20,000 home inspections gives you. I doubt there is anything that he has not seen before. Anyways, At that point we all agreed there was no use to continue the inspection, but he still wrote everything up and supplied us with all of the documentation. The best $500 I have ever spent because I was able to walk away. I will definitely hire Paul for my next inspection!

Approximate cost of services:
$500.00
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Company Response

Greetings Lionel,
We always appreciate hearing back from clients who were satisfied with our services as word of mouth over that past 33 years has been key to our success since 1980. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to comment on our services. I am looking forward to doing your next inspection and wish you and your wife a happy house hunting experience.

Dave from Gloucester
Dave from Gloucester
1 review Gloucester, ON
10/10

Home Inspection

Paul was extremely thorough and helpful! Great guy to have an inspection done by! He took a lot of time to explain what he was doing and what he found and laid it all out in a very detailed report. His obvious passion for his career was evident throughout the whole process!

Approximate cost of services:
$450.00
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Company Response

Hi Dave,
Thank you for the review. It is always rewarding when your clients appreciate the effort we take to ensure that they thoroughly understand the scope of our findings and the true state of their home. Being a teaching professional as well (as Head Instuctor at The Home Inspectors Institute where we train home inspectors), I love being able to educate clients on how systems work or the gravity and impact of a specific house defeciency. It was a pleasure to be of service to you.

Terry
Terry
1 review , ON
10/10

Inspection and advice

Paul was, in a word, outstanding. Not only is he tremendously knowledgable and connected, he's thoughtful and caring. We received fantastic value from Paul and without his expertise and advice, we would have undoubtedly incurred needless and significant costs. A good man and a truly consummate professional, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Paul and Home Inspectors!

Approximate cost of services:
$500.00
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Company Response

Hi Terry,
Thank you for the kind words. It was a pleasrure to be of service. We appreciate you placing your Trust in HOME INSPECTORS.
All the Best.

Matt in Ottawa
Matt in Ottawa
1 review Ottawa, ON
3/10

Pre-purchase inspection

We used Paul for a pre-purchase inspection. It was our first time buying a house and we obviously relied heavily on his assessment.

We ended up not purchasing the house based on Paul’s report – which was entirely our decision based on his information. On the plus side, he did not seem at all interested in sugar-coating anything which I would expect from any inspector.

The cost was $480 for slightly over 2 hours which is definitely on the high end of the scale. This included the time it took Paul to write the report up in front of us. He checked water pressure, electrical, foundation, windows, landscaping, insulation in the attic, etc. and took pictures the whole time which we were not provided with. He did not do a close up inspection of the roof or get on the roof to inspect anything but rather performed a visual inspection from ground level.

While I was fairly comfortable with his ability to honestly assess a home, I was surprised that he wouldn’t offer any sort of discount whatsoever when we came back the next week to see if he was interested in performing an inspection for another place we were considering to purchase.

$480 is a lot of money and pretty expensive for a 2 hour home inspection including watching him write up notes for us. My spouse also called him with follow-up questions on his report and told me afterward that she was not please with his attitude and responses to her questions. Therefore based on a value-for-money and customer service unfortunately I would not be able to recommend this inspector.

Approximate cost of services:
$480.00
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Company Response

Hi Matt,
We’re sorry to hear that you feel our services fell short of your expectations.

First and foremost, home inspection is unregulated in Ontario and anyone can call themselves a home inspector. For this reason, consumers need to exercise caution in their choice. Saving a few dollars and picking a lower priced inspection service whose inspector may not have extensive inspection experience, may end up costing you more than you bargained for in the long run after you buy the home and things start to unravel.

Yes there are inspectors who will conduct their services for $250 but this is also a profession where you get what you pay for.
Our inspection fee was $425 + HST. Considering the age and size of the home, our fee was well within industry norms. Our pricing policy has always been to be fairly competitive with inspection services in our area, with the price reflecting qualifications, experience, training, services, and credentials. We feel that our fees are competitive and reflect a higher quality of service not found with other inspection firms.

Our inspector holds 4 professional designations from respected sources – all recognised and recommended by CMHC. He was a former builder and has been a full time home inspector for 33 years having completed over 22,000 home inspections. Our reputation for service is unsurpassed and we are proud recipients of the BBB “Torch Award” for Exceptional Customer Service and Business Ethics – a first for any home inspection firm in Canada. Our inspector has also won National awards from Canada’s largest Home Inspection Association for his dedicated service to improving the profession. So are we like other inspections firms? We’ve clearly proven we are a cut above on many levels.

You hired us to conduct a comprehensive thorough inspection of a home you were considering purchasing, which you agreed we did. We have performed many thousands of inspections, and the time to complete an inspection is based on following a systematic process that we are very experienced in performing. You express concern with the time spent during your inspection, yet we clearly uncovered a substantial number of issues with the home and had sufficient time to explain them to you in detail while on-site.
You were also informed of our professional practices and procedures prior to your inspection by email and you replied that you were in full agreement with them. Details of our inspection process and limitations were clearly explained and provided to you well in advance. We also offered during our inspection, to share any photos you might need should you wish to bargain with the vendor but none were requested.

We remember the house well. It was an older 1960’s brick bungalow on a very large lot.
While the home had definite curb appeal, closer investigation revealed it had a myriad of issues which included major structural concerns with numerous severe foundation cracks/repairs and step cracking of the brick at several locations. The area the home was located in is well known for being on Leda clay which may have explained a lot of the above. However, in addition to the structural issues, the home also needed a new roof, new A/C and we suspected that the furnace was nearing the end of its anticipated lifespan and suggested that you budget for its replacement in the very near future. Many of the deficiencies noted were significant and could prove very costly to remediate properly, which was also explained to you in detail during our inspection.

When your wife called us she was extremely disappointed that the property had not fared well during our inspection. Unfortunately, our findings were not what she expected or wanted to hear. She wanted us to go back free of charge and give the property a second look. We told her that we stood behind our initial findings 100% and that a re-visit was unnecessary. Deciding whether to proceed with a purchase based upon inspection results, is not our decision to make. It is our professional duty however to inform our clients in detail of all of our findings, both good and bad. It is unfortunate that your wife’s Dream Home turned out to be less than anticipated.

As for the 2nd inspection request, you called on exceptionally short notice during our busiest season and we offered to re-arrange our already full schedule to accommodate you. It is our practise to offer repeat client loyalty discounts and had the home you were looking at been newer, we would extended one but this was another 1950’s – 1960’s older home that you admitted, had issues as well. We felt our price was fair and justified.

The upside Matt was that you made an informed decision to walk away from a potential money pit based upon our report. We take pride in knowing that our inspection educated you both on our concerns for the future upkeep of this property. It is our regret that you feel that you did not get value for your money. We encourage you to contact us directly to address any concerns you had with the inspection or the quality of our reports and services.

Court
Court
1 review OTTAWA, ON

First Review

10/10

Pre-purchase home inspection

Paul Wilson not only identified some minor issues for correction before we bought the house, but he also gave us a lot of information on home maintenance and things to think about each season. He also had a lot of local knowledge about how some homes in the area were experiencing settling because of the make-up of the soil. We were very happy with his work.

Approximate cost of services:
$450.00
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Company Response

Hi Court,

We are happy to hear that you were satisfied with your inspection and the information and materials provided. Thank you for the kind reponse. It was a pleasure to be of service.

The reviews on this page are the subjective opinion of the Author and not of HomeStars Inc.

More about Home Inspectors

Since 1980. Ottawa's most experienced and trusted name in Home Inspections. Paul Wilson, NHI, PHPI, RHI, ACHI. Over 25, 000 inspections. BBB Award Winner- Pre-Purchase, Pre-Listing, Homeowner Assessment/ Maintenance Inspections Renovation Inspections, Condo Inspections, - New Home Inspection Specialist (Tarion)- Pre-Delivery, 30-Day, Tarion 1 & 2 Yr Inspections.
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