4 Sight Inspections Inc.

Had scheduled a home inspection in July for our current home. Mike was prompt and completed the home inspection. We were first-time home buyers so he showed us the basics of what we should be looking for - furnaces, windows, pipe leaks, etc. Since there was nothing major, we ended up closing on the house.

The first sign that the home inspection was sub-par was when we hired a contractor to do a small renovation in Sept. He took a look at the house and showed us several spots in the house where it was newly painted and thought that the home inspector should've investigated it more thoroughly. The contractor investigated things for us for free and mentioned that there might have been a window leak before but it's been fixed. We were relieved.

In Nov, during the rain, we found a leak in the garage ceiling. Tracing it vertically to the attic, we found that there was a leak sourcing from the chimney back panel. Upon calling a roofer, he said that this leak had been going on for over a year and that the home inspector should've caught it. I distinctly remember 3 days before the home inspection that there was a thunderstorm and even remember Mike mentioning that it was a good sign that there was no moisture found in the attic or the basement even after the storm. The well-trained eye of a good home inspector would've spotted a drying wet patch in the garage ceiling. Obviously, in this case, it went unnoticed and it was very clear that the home inspection was not thorough.

Upon contacting Mike and mentioning this, we asked if anything could be done to assist financially through his inspection guarantee. To my absolute surprise, he simply washed his hand off by saying that it's beyond the 30-day timeline. While this is technically true, I would like to highlight a couple of points:

1. He did not even acknowledge that his home inspection was not thorough or he missed this incident. No apology, no acknowledgment.
2. If you give him a full rating on Google review or Homestars, we would be eligible to be entered into a draw to get our home inspection money back. Given that his incompetence has resulted in a $1000 loss for us now to fix our chimney, you'd think the least he could have done is to refund our inspection money. But nope!

The absolute lack of acknowledgment of a flawed inspection, the lack of an apology, the lack of even a shred of care to come down to our house to see what the problem was and to see if he could refer us to someone, while quickly pointing out the technical timeline clause for his guarantee is what made me write this review.

For those first-time home buyers or in general for those of you who are considering 4Sight, just be aware that certain obvious things get missed and you could lose your negotiating power with the seller for repairs. Additionally, if you spot them too late, that nice-on-paper inspection guarantee is basically useless.