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An experienced inspector will prepare your Home Inspection Reports with easy to read and understand details on:
Again between now and our few hours together write down all your questions as you think of them and we'll hit them one at a time. I will review the results of the inspection to make sure you understand everything and answer any remaining questions.



Buyer Inspection

I will inspect and review your house as though my family was moving in.

A major concern of home buyers is being suddenly confronted with unexpected costly problems after they take ownership of a property. A home inspection can reduce the fear of the unknown by screening for deficiencies and documenting them in a comprehensive report.

Dreamcatcher Home Inspection will also point out the positive aspects of a home, as well as the periodic maintenance that will be necessary to keep it in good shape. After the inspection, you will have peace of mind and a much clearer understanding of the home you are about to purchase.  As a result, you will be in a position to make a significantly more educated purchase.
 A home inspection is a visual process where all of the items typically used within a home are tested and/or operated to verify proper operation or installation. Doors and windows are opened and closed, roofing materials inspected , air conditioning and heating systems operated. I will fill the sinks and tubs, run the showers and flush all the toilets. All the while making notes on the condition and operation of the components tested. A report can be delivered on site or will be emailed to you the same day. I will also email a copy of the report to anyone you wish me to. 
An experienced inspector will prepare your Home Inspection Report. It should be easy to read and understand and contain:
  • The condition of every major component from the roof to the basement
  • The general expected life span of these components and where yours are in that time frame
  • Major and minor deficiencies
  • Any major expenditures necessary or cumulatively major
  • What to watch out for
  • Helpful home preservation and maintenance tips
  • Safety Concerns
  • And much more
Please,  between now and our few hours together write down all your questions as you think of them and we'll hit them one at a time. At the end we will review the results of the inspection to make sure you understand everything and answer any remaining questions.


Maintenance Inspections

"Holy Cow! Look at how much you grew"!!!

This is what I hear when my dad comes back up North in the spring and first sees my 4 children.

The subtle changes in my kids growth over the course of the couple months my dad is away I don't notice because I am with them day after day as they grow.He notices because he's not there everyday and has fresh eyes.
This is much the same for me coming to your home once a year or so. When I come in I see your building from a different unbiased point of view.

Get a list of what needs to be done to properly maintain the property.

Get the budgetary information to help you determine the order of the list.

Get someone to oversee the maintenance process.

Get a follow up visit to inspect the finished job(s).
 
Everyone's building and maintenance needs are different.
Go here
Get the Maintenance Inspection  that
You Need

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Four Point Inspection

The Four Point Insurance Inspection consists of a visual survey of the these four primary components:

  • Roof 
  • HVAC System
  • Electrical
  • Plumbing
The Four Point Insurance Inspection was created after Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in 1992. It is performed on behalf of the insurance companies and, typically, as a requirement for the insurer offering insurance to the new homeowner. These are starting to become a bit more prevalent around here.

When the Foundation is added making it a 5 point inspection, well then we have the Investor Inspection.  This works for seasoned Investors. 

4 & 5 Point  fees

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Renter Inspections

This is a 1 - 3 page report on my Letterhead documenting the condition of the rental property in your unit, prior to your living in it.
Pictures and text are used to  document the condition of things such as flooring, counter tops, walls, fixtures and cabinets. Any flaws, defects, holes, burn marks, stains and such are documented and put into a PDF file. This file will be written to a read only disk so it is tamper proof and stored by me.  A copy of this report will be emailed to you and/or you can elect to have a copy on a disc snail mailed to you.
When you rent and you want your security deposit back you need to take care of the property. This is the documentation you need to back up your prior condition claims.

Renter Inspection Report Pricing

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Draw Inspections

As you build a building, the subcontractors need to pay their bills. Someone has to physically go out to the job sites to verify completion levels and jobsite material delivery. 
I do this as a visual, non invasive inspection documented with a construction progression check list and digital photos where applicable. 

Draw inspection Pricing
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Radon Inspections

What is Radon

  • Colorless
  • Odorless
  • Tasteless
  • Radioactive
  • Second leading cause of Lung Cancer in America (www.cancer.gov)
  • Testing is the only way to determine if it is there
I have a bunch of links where you can get loads and loads of info on Radon.   Call Bill Now for Your Test

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Moisture Scans

While water has great thermal mass and holds heat, when water evaporates it feels cold. The evaporation process uses that stored heat as energy to convert water from a liquid to a gas.
This is why wearing a wet t-shirt feels cold.
So, we can "see" that hot / cold difference with the Thermal camera. This gets us to an area where we can further test for moisture with other equipment.
A lot of times there will be no visual clues that a wall or ceiling is holding excess moisture.
This is a non invasive inspection that takes inspecting to a whole new level not available to the naked eye. 
Include the Thermal Moisture Scan with your Home Inspection

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Air Infiltration

Every house has some kind of air leak to it.  A large part of heat loss in the winter and cooling loss in the summer can be directly attributed to air leaks.

The object here is to identify
and fix areas in your house where air is both coming in and leaving your house.
We will depressurize your house and use the thermal camera to locate the air movement. As the air comes in the heat difference is visible.

This can be done
 both in the summer and the winter.

This works best
when there is a temperature difference of about 20 degrees between the inside and the outside.

Fixing air infiltration leaks found in your inspection are usually projects that most homeowners can do themselves.

Call Bill Now

Thermal Pricing       Top



Attic Heat & Cooling Run Leaks

This happens when the joints in a heat run allow conditioned air to escape into the attic space. This can cause a large amount energy loss.
By entering the attic space while the furnace is pushing the cooled or heated air the thermal camera allows us to "see" the heat difference from normal insulation to insulation that has conditioned air being pumped into it.

Thermal pricing    Call Bill Now
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    Sell Your Home for
 TOP DOLLAR 

NEGOTIATE FROM A POWER POSITION with a SELLERS INSPECTION

 It wasn't too long ago that any house would sell in a short amount of time. It seemed as though you didn't even get the sign post in the ground and the house was sold. It was a Sellers Market and Sellers had all the power. Some lucky sellers even got more than list price.

Unfortunately for you the Seller, right now is a buyers market. The tide of negotiating power has shifted to the Buyers.

How can you equalize this?

The home inspection comes after there is an accepted offer.  After all the long negotiation where you lowered your price more than you really wanted.

So all the negotiation is over right?

WRONG!!!!!

What happens when the inspector finds something. Something you had no idea about, or something that you have become so used to that you didn't pay it any attention. Now you are either going to have to take some MORE MONEY OFF THE PRICE or pay out of your pocket right now to get a contractor in to fix the item.

You just lost more control and more money OR the sale completely. Not good.

THE PROBLEM ?

You did not enter the negotiation with a complete understanding of  the item you are selling.         YOUR HOUSE.

Can you see how that hurts you? No? Not really?

Let me help you with that.

By doing a Pre-listing inspection you catch the things that will come back to bite you later in the process.

Here is an Example:

We do the inspection. I find the cord to the garbage disposal not attached to the disposal properly. A Safety issue. Now, say you or a friend of yours is capable of fixing this quite easily. Would you rather have them fix it for the mere pennies it would cost or have the Buyer dictate which Union scale Electrician you get to pay $200.00 to????

Need another Example? 

A house I fixed and sold in Brookfield a while back.

To the normal person the roof looked ok. And it was ok.  As you looked closer you could then see the tell tale signs of its age. 

From the Home Inspector point of view, I would tell a client;

While this roof is still functional,  you should budget to replace it sometime in the next 5 years as it is nearing the end of it's expected life.

"Mister Inspector, What would that roof cost to replace?" Asks the Buyer.

"Having that roof replaced by a qualified roofing company just out of the phone book would run about    6- 10,000 dollars." Says Mr. Inspector.

The buyer now is going to come back to YOU and ask for MORE money off the price.

I decided to have the roof replaced at my leisure, prior to listing the house. It was now not a rush job. It cost me $1,500 in materials and $2,000 in labor. (and two cases of beer and 4 thick Porter Haus steaks)

I SAVED about $5,500.00 and took the roof negotiation right off the Table!!!!

Do I have you thinking yet? 

 Another route I could have taken was to disclose the roof as being old and adjusting the price.  No, not the $3,500 I spent. Now you get to negotiate with the buyer. He'll want a discount closer to the $6-10,000 because that is what he's  being told.

From searching to writing the offer, through the price negotiation and into the various inspections, emotions typically start to run high. Now,on top of that, some of those idiot inspectors out there will scare your buyers with the way they present their findings.

CAN YOU SEE NOW HOW KNOWING THE CONDITION OF YOUR HOUSE HELPS YOU MAINTAIN CONTROL, SAVE MONEY AND SELL YOUR HOUSE QUICKER????

With that real life example right there, I could charge 4 times my normal inspection fee and STILL be a bargain.

In all my years I've found three  things that seem to hold true.

One - is that buyers are able to digest, tolerate and negotiate one or two disclosed larger items that they feel are "wrong" with the house.  Or a couple of small maintenance items.

Second - People don't like a long list of maintenance issues they have to do right away.

Third - Undisclosed, surprise big budget items tend to scare buyers.

Buyers have a real hard time with a laundry list of 5 or more  things.  The total amount of time it takes to repair these things could be as little as a weekend or a day. But when it is a buyers market they want move in condition. Don't forget that next house could literally be just around the corner.

Be sure to have your Realtor and/or your attorney explain how disclosure of property condition works in WI. My understanding is that it prohibits the buyers from coming back after the offer is accepted and trying to renegotiate something that has already been disclosed. It is when the UNKNOWN pops up that the heart ache sets in.

Ask your Realtor or your Attorney to fully explain the nuances of the Inspection Contingency and the "right to cure" and " no right to cure" clauses in the contract.



Roof Moisture

The use of Thermal Infrared Imaging for Flat Roof Moisture inspections has now become an economical and feasible method of maintaining the flat roofs that are commonly found in commercial, office buildings and industrial buildings.
The average life span of these roofs is 15 years with leaks typically developing with in the first two years.
Roof leaks develop due to a variety of reasons including but not limited to poor installation, design, maintenance and damage.
When water enters the roof system it rarely leaves or dries up causing premature failure of the roofing material.  This causes the roof materials to degrade and fail well before they should especially the various types of insulation located beneath the surface material. 
Thermal Imaging will help us determine the extent of what materials are affected and quite possibly help to find the area of the leak(s).
A well designed and maintained roof should be inspected every 2 to 4 years or after severe weather like hail, strong wind and severe thunderstorms.
How does this work?
Water has a good Thermal mass.
This means that it absorbs heat and releases it slower than other things like insulation and wood and shingles and tar and pea gravel and rocks and rubber..... So, if there is a leak in a roofing system we can see this thermal mass heat source at night when the other items have cooled off.
Repairing just the area of moisture intrusion instead of an entire roof can
SAVE TENS of THOUSANDS of DOLLARS !!!!

Call Bill NOW
for your Thermal  Roof Inspection

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Item Specific

This can be just about anything you can think of. If you have questions or cares or concerns about some aspect of your house, please by all means call me. Who knows maybe I can just help you over the phone.
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Insulation Heat Loss

Insulation

Using a Thermal Camera allows us to "see" the heat differences from one spot to another.
There are many reasons why a house in Wisconsin would have insulation issues.
 
  • Insulation settles
  • gets disturbed by animals
  • gets moved by wind coming in through soffit panels
  • gets moved when cable is run
  • falling from lack of support. 
  • Gets installed improperly
  • I've seen areas in an attic where the insulation was being supported only by the thin plastic vapor barrier and it all fell through in dead spaces behind the walls. I bet those bathroom walls were cold in the winter. Brrr 
  • Age/Era of construction
  • Many other reasons
An Infrared Thermal Camera Inspection will allow us to
"see"
Heat Transfer from the inside to the outside.

Thermal Pricing    Call Bill Now
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