Secure Choice Real Estate Consultants

I’ve worked with both John and Mike on two separate home purchases and was impressed with how thorough, consultative, and friendly they both are. They provided detailed notes on every part of the property and even went above and beyond with additional details about exterior work for the HOA. They provided imperative insight for us to determine how to proceed with our home buying processes and would definitely use them again!

The inspections went very well. Mark is knowledgeable and thorough.

Mark is the consummate professional. He sets the right expectations up front and then goes above and beyond delivering on them. He will show up on time with all of the equipment he will need for possibly the most thorough property inspection you've seen. He also insists on the buyer being present for crucial parts of the inspection. This is great not only to witness his skill but also to see first hand the faults of the property you seek to buy. His final reports are extremely detailed and for us, they have served as a home improvement to do list even after the purchase is completed.

He does not waste any time and will proceed with surgical precision. His is not a passive inspection of just what is visible from 10 feet away. He will get his hands and knees dirty if it means finding anything that would adversely affect the valuation of the property. Obviously, he has tremendous experience, the right equipment and an up to date knowledge base to find these faults/deviations from code. 

We have used his expertise twice (so far)- once for a condo in Chicago and another for a home in a western suburb. On both occasions, Mark has done such a thorough job that it has given us an edge with negotiations and guaranteed that we receive substantial fair compensation towards closing costs. 

His loyalty will first be to you and he will not even discuss what he sees with your agent unless you authorize it. His experience coupled with his candor make for a formidable combination in his line of work. 

Mark was extremely professional and thorough.  He even walked up on our 30-old year shake roof, although it was not exactly safe to do so!  You will be hard pressed to find a better home inspector.

Mark arrived on time and gave a thorough inspection of every room in the house as well as the attic, garage, and basement. Mark also inspected the yard and foliage. Mark obviously has a great deal of knowledge and was very generous with tips to take care of certain issues in the house. Mark spent over 4 hours with me, explaining exactly what he was seeing as well as what should be addressed. Mark was very professional and did an excellent job inspecting our home.

Mark did a very job. We were first time home buyers - a lot of jitters during the buying process. The home inspection went through perfect - no issues at all. They did a thorough job. We were able to use Mark's findings as leverage in renegotiating the price. Money well spent for us.
I also want to mention that I rarely review providers / vendors. But Mark did such a good job I need to spread the word around.

This is the third time that we have used Mark for a home inspection and he always does a fantastic job.  His inspection is extremely thorough and his resulting report is comprehensive and helpful when trying to negotiate with sellers on items that need to be fixed prior to closing. The report provides photos and clear explanation of his findings as well as $ estimate to fix.
Mark shows-up on time and stays as long as he needs to complete the job - it doesn't feel rushed. Throughout the inspection, he takes time to explain his findings so when the report is issued we know exactly what the items are referring to.  My knowledge of home repairs is extremely limited but Mark does a great job of clearly explaining issues in a way that I can understand and I feel comfortable asking questions.
The report was delivered on-time and both our real estate broke and the seller's said it was the most detailed and comprehensive inspection they had ever seen.

Fantastic home inspector, extremely detailed and very personable. Produced a gorgeous report with full color pictures, very clear about the relative importance of what he found. He was recommended by a friend who used him 3 times, and we'll definitely use him again. Also appreciated that he had a Square card reader so he could take my credit card payment securely right there.

Mark was EXTREMELY detailed. He gave us both pointers on how to maintain our property and also pointed out issues that needed to be remediated. Marks detailed report included photographs and descriptions. I have worked with Mark before on another purchase (that fell through) and Mark has consistently provided great service as well as excellent advice

Mark performed a home inspection on an investment property and as always he was great! I have used Mark's services twice in the past. Mark is very detailed with the inspection and the report. The seller didn't make the property available to use for an inspection twice and Mark was very understanding and rescheduled. I will continue to use Mark for any future purchases.

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Mark was great, he was straight forward on both home inspections, he simply found what was right and wrong with each house and put it down on paper. He provided estimates to correct the things as well. On the first home inspection, I thought I was buying a turn key house until Mark found serious fire damage in the basement that had been painted over to try and hide it from potential homeowners. I'm beyond thankful he found that because if I had bought that house and found the fire damage later I would have been beyond furious, I backed out of the deal immediately. A few weeks later I found another house and Mark did a complete home inspection again. There were a few things wrong with the house but nothing major, the inspection report helped greatly when countering with the current home owners. All in all, if you want a guy that knows what hes doing give Mark a call, I'm happy I did.

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Prior to meeting Mark at the site, we had a few email exchanges and phone conversations.  He explained the process that is involved in a home inspection, and provided a few recent sample reports of inspections he had done.
For the pre-drywall inspection, Mark arrived on time and did a detailed inspection.  Within 1-2 days, he delivered the inspection report and worked with us to clarify any questions we had on the report.
For the final inspection, we were not able to be present, but Mark delivered the report to us within a day of the inspection.  Mark also called prior to the inspection and let us know that if there were any major issues discovered during his inspection, he would call us to discuss right away, rather than waiting for the report to be finished.
It was a pleasure to work with Mark and Secure Choice, and I will definitely recommend him to anyone looking for a home inspector.

He was wonderful.

Mark was at the location 15 minutes before the scheduled appointment time. First of all he introduced himself and gave us a brief overview of what he would do. Then he asked if there was any area of the property that we considered of particular concern or had a question regarding.  He explained how he would proceed on the inspection and even offered/suggested that, if we'd like to accompany him through the condo, we were certainly welcome to do so.  My friend is an engineer and weekend builder; that was all the encouragement he needed to follow along.   We could not have been more impressed with Mark's thoroughness and clarity in explaining various situations.  My Realtor has been watching inspections for more than a decade and had never witnessed any job as complete as Mark's - he even called the listing agent to the property while we were still there to see some of the issues that should be resolved immediately.
Every square inch of the property was evaluated by Mark.  He found many items that, I have no doubt, would have been missed by a lesser inspector. It was a damp day and Mark made sure he tracked no dirt into the unit or make a mess of any kind.
I have not purchased real estate for a very long time and I was concerned that my lack of experience would make me somehow a victim of my own thought process,  If you are like me, Mark is the man to have on your side.  He itemized the areas of the condo that need attention and explained in writing why the listed item was a problem. He then gave cost estimates of each item.  He had to have completed the paperwork late into the night since it was electronically sent to me - and my attorney - early the next day.
Do yourself a favor and hire Mark!  I'm glad I did.

Having gone through several home inspections, I can say that Mark was an excellent inspector.  He was very thorough and took the time to ensure that you understood all of the workings of the home & why the things that he found were relevant (he also was very clear about the key items you should really care about vs. the minor/cosmetic type fixes).  While the inspection lasted ~4+hours for a ~3,500 S.F. home, Mark did not waste anyone's time.  He moved quickly through his analysis & was very succinct with his explanations. He was able to turn his report within 24 hours, which was well-put together, easy to understand & complete with all relevant photos/explanations (for what its worth, the sellers agreed to fix everything that Mark identified in his report).  Unfortunately, the subject house purchase fell through on appraisal issues.  We tried to hire Mark again for our next inspection but he was booked up and unable to do the inspection on the date that we required.  So my only complaint would be that he may want to consider developing a team of inspectors to learn his skills/approach and work for him so that he can cover more ground in the Chicagoland area.

Mark gave us great confidence on exactly what was needed to be fixed in the house.  He was VERY thorough in checking every corner of the house.  I don't have a lot of experience in house inspections but we used a different company for another house we considered and Mark was much more thorough than the previous company that we used which gave me greater confidence.  We were able to use his detailed notes and photos to negotiate a lot more things to be fixed or be given credits.  We hired Mark to come back for a final inspection and he was able to point out things that they claimed were fixed but were not completely.  Again, this helped with final negotiations.  Thanks!

It was excellent! He was very knowledgeable, courteous, and very professional.

Mark was the most professional and thorough inspector we could have hoped for.  He was uber responsive to any email, call or contact of any sort.  He showed up early to our scheduled time and conducted himself with the utmost professionalism throughout the entire inspection.  The inspection lasted for a little over 3 hours; he inspected every nook and cranny of the house to ensure everything was properly installed and up to code.  He checked out the roof - climbed on it - the electrical box, all appliances and connections, water, HVAC unit/runs, all lights/switches/electrical, and climbed all in the hot, non-ventilated attic to ensure all the attic vents were in proper condition.  He conducted this on a Monday afternoon and by Tuesday morning he had the full report - along with guesstimates on repair/fix - out to us so we could review and talk to our attorney.
All in all, I am VERY HAPPY Mark provided such a thorough inspection because we ended up backing out of the contract due to the amount of work that would need to be done and structural issues that Mark helped to uncover.  If it were not for him we could have bought a troublesome house and had problems in the future with selling it.  Thanks Mark!

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Mark did a great job! 

As a former appraiser, agent and inspector I sometimes come off as a "know it all". When it comes to investing in a home, I'm more than happy to spend the money. Mark picked up on a lot of things I would have missed. His work was done with great detail, questions were answered quickly and without doubt. I've worked with 20-30 inspectors in the past, Mark will always be my first choice.  

I have 15 years in the business, I'll hire Mark every time!  The review on A.L. was spot on.

Sincerely,

Michael    

From the start, Mark was impressive.  He responded promptly to our email inquiry, scheduled our inspection in a timely fashion, was ready and waiting at the property on the day of our appointment, and went to work immediately.  He was extremely thorough and professional.  This guy knows what he's doing!  He prepared a comprehensive report with clear photos to illustrate his findings and delivered it by email the morning after the inspection.  We thought his fee was very reasonable for the time he put in (approximately four hours for a single-story, 1900 sq. ft. home). 
Don't bother with anyone else if you're looking for home inspection service in the Fox Valley area!