STEPHEN HOME INSPECTION

It went very well and smoothly. Stephen was very thorough and gave me useful advice. Thorough and punctual, I highly recommend this company. Martine Alexander

He's unprofessional and arrogant. At least was the inspection good? He was so lazy that he did not test some of the key utilities in the house. Missed some glaring red flags. Hiring this man was one of my biggest mistakes, resulting in buying a home that I wouldn't have touched. Will never recommend.

Fast and efficient, worked around seller's agent being difficult and trying to impede the process.

Stephen did a very thorough job of inspecting the house, and took lots of pictures. He was willing to discuss issues in detail. The inspection itself went well, but the report was very disappointing. His website guarantees a report in 24 hours, and we did not get ours until after 48 hours. The report was very poorly written, and was not a useful guide for the needed repairs. It was disorganized, and contained some obvious errors. "[UPDATE]: The images that Stephen sent me on the 22nd are timestamped accordingly. I also have email records with my realtor who was also present on Wednesday the 22nd. The inspection could not have been on the 23rd. Stephen wrote 23rd on his report even though the actual inspection was done on the 22nd because he did not deliver the report until the 24th. My dissatisfaction with this inspection was not the state of the home, but the state of the report."

Steve did an excellent job on our home inspection! My husband and I are first time homebuyers and we were fairly nervous going into the inspection because (1) our new house is old (built in 1900) and (2) we had a lot of questions. Steve was able to book the appointment with very short notice, showed up on time, and was very professional throughout. He was very courteous and answered all of our questions - regardless of how small and/or novice - thoroughly and in terms we could easily understand. He was frank about what needed work/updating on the house and what didn't. More importantly, he did a really great job of helping us to understand what HAD to be fixed versus what COULD or should be fixed. He also talked us through what any repairs would likely cost and how long they would take (or how difficult they might be to do ourselves). His whole approach made the entire process a lot less overwhelming for us. He also took time after the inspection to speak to us openly about his opinion of the house and what we should do going forward (which was that it was a good house and we should absolutely go ahead with the purchase - which we did!). He was incredibly thorough in his inspection as well. While this may be our first time buying, my husband is in real estate and has seen many inspections on other homes - he said that Steve was one of, it not the most, thorough inspectors he'd seen. We spent 3.5-4 hours in a 1600 sq. ft home and covered everything including the entire exterior/property, basement, kitchen/baths, living areas, roof, attic, chimney, etc. While we only asked/paid for a home inspection, he also did an "unofficial" pest examination for us, for our own knowledge. After the inspection, he sent us a very detailed and easy to understand report the next day. While he was a little pricier than other inspectors we looked into, I think he was definitely worth the money.

We're first time homebuyers, and he talked about issues with the place in terms that we were able to easily understand. It's a real fixer upper, and he also recommended how he would approach repairing or renovating certain things, which was very helpful for us. Also just a really nice guy to talk to. We had wanted my wife's father to come to the inspection with us, but he was unable to make it. I mentioned to my wife that with Stephen doing the inspection, it was kind of like her father was there anyway (this is a compliment). I asked the selling real estate agent how long he thought the inspection would take, before Stephen arrived. He said probably no more than an hour. Stephen took 2 hours, which made me feel like he was being very thorough. The selling real estate agent also asked for Stephen's card after the inspection was complete and said he might contact him for future business, which I thought was another good sign.

Used Stephen because of great reviews on Angie's list and reasonable price compared to similar providers. He was very thorough and answered even my "dumbest" questions. He arrived on time and provided multiple pictures in the easy to understand report. Would definitely use him again!

Stephen was recommended by my real estate broker and his high ratings on Angies List convinced me to hire him for my home inspection. I called Stephen on his cell phone on a Sunday and he agreed to do the inspection on the Tuesday after confirming the weather forecasts. The day before the inspection he sent me a confirmation over email. On the day of the inspection, Stephen arrived on time and met with the listing broker. I infact was 10 mins late but Stephen had performed the ground work for the inspection like laying ladders to access the roof, etc. Once I got there, Stephen handed me a folder with lot of information and had me sign the disclosure statement. Then Stephen took me around the property inspecting the yard, the trees and shrubs and exterior of the house. He took pictures, pointed out where things like meters were located and their purpose. He also had recommendations for good practises. Then we went inside the house and inspected the rooms, their doors windows, electrical outlets, vents, carpets and floors. Stephen answered questions along the way and also had recommendations. He then turned to inspecting the applicances. Every single appliance was turned on and ensured to be in working order. He also apprised me on the life expectancy of those appliances and the costs to replace them. We then wrapped up after 2.5 hours and I handed him a check for his fee. The same evening, Stephen sent me pictures detailing the home inspection. The next day, he sent a detailed report with his observations and recommendations. I was very happy with the level of his service, his knowledge and expertise.

Everything went smoothly. He seems very experienced with condo units. We received the report by email the evening after the inspection, discussed it with the seller, and despite some worries about the HVAC system that Stephen found, we decided to move forward. We are aware of some issues that we'll need to keep an eye on with that system, but we at least know what we are getting into. He was polite on the phone before we hired him, and responded quickly to email questions. He arrived on time for the inspection. There were some concerns - such as whether the 20+ year-old heating and cooling system would last much longer. He also informed us about how the system uses a type of freon that will be obsolete soon - so we'll need to think about replacing the system in the near future even if it doesn't fail on us. All of the information in the report, which arrived by email the next day, was useful. I recommend him highly. As a woman, it's refreshing to work with someone who answers naive questions with respect. I will say one thing about inspections in general - as I've been through 3 of them. Inspectors tend to tell you their biggest worries during the inspection - and they tend to soften the tone in the report. I am accustomed to this - but make sure you listen carefully during the inspection, as I did. There must be some type of risk involved in writing down every worry they have - so listen carefully!

After reading great things on Angie's List, I went with Stephen even though his price was not the lowest. He alerted me in advance that he did not perform pest inspections, so I hired an exterminator for a concurrent inspection, separately. Stephen showed up just about on-time for an evening home inspection. His inspection itself was pretty thorough, and he caught a few things that an outright bad home inspector probably would have missed, such as a loose vanity. Moreover, throughout the course of his inspection, he offered me a few bits of useful advice, such as that the seller was responsible for removing an old oil tank. He also offered some unasked-for advice on dealing with people of the seller's ethnicity. He also missed a number of small but non-trivial items that the seller should have corrected, for example two of the lally columns were not nailed down or affixed to the floor in the basement, a broken footing on the back deck, two missing window screens, some missing flashing in the roof soffits, a loose and improperly-installed bathroom ceiling vent, loose bricks in the fireplace, etc. These were not severe structural or major building-system faults, but they should have been included in the inspection report, when I could have demanded that the seller correct them. In time and money they have certainly cost more than the home inspection did. I was moderately satisfied with the inspection, but somewhat less satisfied with the report. The example reports I had read in "Home Buying For Dummies" and one previous home inspection I had were considerably more thorough and descriptive. Stephen's Home report was more like a checklist of "satisfactory/unsatisfactory" with occasional notes such as "door needs to be painted", or "should be replaced", etc. There were also a couple of outright mistakes (such as incorrectly claiming that a bathroom heater did not work), and one or two omissions of things he had noted and commented on during the inspection, such as a faulty dryer vent and a basement crawlspace that was dangerously full of dryer lint as a consequence. This rather vague, incomplete, and slightly sloppy reporting style impaired my credibility and leverage when it came to extracting concessions from the seller on things that needed to be fixed. Obviously, the first and most important role of a home inspection is to identify serious structural or systemic problems, on which count I suppose Stephen succeeded, since there were none. But a secondary, and I think very important role is to provide a credible and neutral third-party assessment of the current state of the home, and all the little odds and ends that need to be fixed, so that both the buyer and the seller are literally "on the same page" when it comes to negotiating any concessions regarding the condition in which the home will be delivered. Even if the sale is for a distressed or "as is" property, it is just as critical for the soon-to-be cash-depleted buyer to have a clear and complete sense of the scope of repairs she will have to make on this home after the purchase. On this count I cannot say I got my money's worth from Stephen, and I am surprised at the high marks he's received on Angie's List.

We had an 8:30 appointment, Stephen showed up at 8:45. Not really a big deal. He introduced himself and we got started soon thereafter. I needed to sign some paperwork with the realtors and both my realtor and the seller's realtor mentioned how "grumpy" he was. I agreed. Throughout the inspection my realtor and I asked questions. He looked at me when she left the room and said "she must be new because she asks a lot of stupid questions". She's not new, she's been doing this over 20 years and is the owner of the company with more than 25 realtors working for her. I appreciated her questions. He made it uncomfortable to ask questions, like every question was dumb. I'm a 37 year old man that's very handy and understand quite a bit. I don't know about old systems and needed to be educated. I asked some questions about if there was knob and tube wiring...he wasn't sure, but when asked what type of wiring had cloth on it in the breaker box he sas not sure what it was. This is important for an inspection. I am now having an electrician out to the house at the cost of $150 to inspect the electrical because I'm not confident in the job that was done as part of the inspection. If you want someone to show you the ropes of the house and how things work, Stephen is not your guy. His report is basic and not very explanatory. Instead of giving some info about what needed to be done he rates things....fair, good, very good, etc. There is some commentary but not nearly enough to negotiate with or as much as I've seen on other reports. I would not use or recommend Stephen again. The overall 'D' relates to professionalism as he made me, my realtor and the seller's realtor uncomfortable for 3 hours. The good about Stephen is that he seems to know a lot about the structure of the building. I was confident in his assessment of this.

Stephen promptly scheduled an appointment for the home inspection on a date (Saturday) that worked best with our schedule. He arrived 15 minutes early and got right to work inspecting the exterior of the house. Once my husband and I arrived, he explained every detailof what he was examining in a professional and thorough manner. He was patient and answered all of our questions. I was very impressed with his attention to detail. He spent 10 minutes trying to pry open a sump that hadn't been opened since installation in order to determine whether there was a french drain in place (there wasn't). He tested every heating vent/electrical outlet/sprinkler setting. He was extremely thorough and I don't think he overlooked any detail of the house. He was extremely knowledgeable and provided my husband and I with a tremendous amount of information in the 4 hours he spent walking around with us. The next day, he emailed us a 28 page summary report of his findings, invoice, MA HI Regulations, and ~50 photos of the house. The price quoted above includes a $75 radon detection test.

The report turned out to be a disaster. It turned out to be a draft, like a template, with no descriptions. He offered no photographs, and in comparison with other home inspectors, it looks very amateur. There are not details and very little information, and the format is not professional at all. There was a crack in the foundation, which he told us was simply a result of the house settling. We found out once we moved in that it was actually a much more serious issue. This was a terrible experience, and I would absolutely not use him again.

Stephen was extremely professional and went the extra mile to help us out in explaining the idiosyncrasies of our older house. We needed to do a lot of cosmetic work and he gave us some good advice that probably ended up saving us money and time.

The inspection went very well. As we wrapped up, we sat down to talk privately with Stephen for a few minutes. We are fortunate that the house has been well-maintained, and received fair, knowledgeable information and evaluation about issues we'll need to tackle immediately, potential issues down the road and regular maintenance areas.

Stephen was very personable on the phone and was on time for the inspection. However, he answered his cell phone several times during the inspection. The first time he answered the phone, he said that he expected to be done by 1:00. As the calls kept coming in (I believe they were personal calls from the same person), his estimate for how long he would be at our house got earlier and earlier. 12:30, 12:15, 12:00. We got the impression that he was rushing our inspection so he could get out of there. I wasn't impressed by the inspection either. He mostly walked around narrating what he saw. "Ungrounded outlet, grounded outlet, ungrounded outlet." I could see that myself, but he didn't test most of them (if he had, he would have discovered, as I did later, that the outlet boxes were indeed grounded - the outlets were the ungrounded type, but could easily be replaced with grounded outlets. He made no mention of this.) The house has a small crawlspace. When Stephen inspected it he noticed some sawdust and declared that there was termite damage. A subsequent termite inspection showed that there was no termite damage and no evidence of termites. The sawdust he saw was exactly that - sawdust from construction. The termite inspector was surprised that a home inspector couldn't tell the difference. We found out the worst part only after we moved into the house - there was a serious carpenter ant problem. Stephen didn't find any evidence of it though the pest inspector said that the signs were obvious and should have been noticed by a home inspector. I could go into much more detail, but suffice to say that we were very disappointed in the quality of the inspection.

My husband and I are buying a condo and needed a home inspection. Stephen promptly arrived at the scheduled time and started inspecting the exterior of the building before the realtors arrived. Through out the entire 3 hours inspection, Stephen maintained his professional attitude, expertise and thoroughness. During the inspection, both my husband and I followed Stephen around and continued to write notes of all comments verbalized by Stephen. Upon completion of the inspection, Stephen told us that the report, pictures and contract information would be sent to our email within 24 hours. The contract, invoice and pictures were received that evening. Expecting the report the next day, I looked for it but due to a glitch in the email system the report was not received until I made a call to Stephen. He promptly sent it as soon as he received my phone call. The report and my notes were consistent and allow us to have approximately 95% of his suggestions completed by the seller before the Purchase and Sale Agreement were signed.

On account of Stephen's excellent inspection, I was able to renegotiate and substantially reduce the condominium price.

I called Stephen Home Inspection to book an inspection, and he was very courteous and professional on the phone. Always picks up his phone, and doesn't waste time. Not only is he local to Belmont, but he is a structural engineer and does contracting work of his own, so he is very well-qualified compared to some other home inspectors. The inspection was scheduled for 9AM on a weekday, and he was there promptly, bringing all the tools he needed for the job in his bag. He had prepared a folder for me with general information on home ownership and home inspection. He inspected the outside of the house first, pointing out general observations that would impact me, such as how old the roof is and when I should get it replaced, etc. He pointed out some safety issues and also some tips I should keep in mind in dealing with neighbors, etc. He is very knowledgeable about the building code and is mainly concerned with helping people preserve and protect their home. From there we went down to the basement, where he looked at the infrastructure of the house and the electric, heating, and sewage systems. He was very thorough and pointed out features to me that I might not be familiar with, such as this property having two sump pumps. He gave suggestions on how he might improve/upgrade the house, which was nice. From there we went upstairs. Walking around the inside of the house, he pointed out work that had been done in the past, and gave more ideas about how to improve the property's utility and value. We checked each floor, including the walk-up attic. He was concerned with the lack of insulation up there, and talked with me about a couple of options to fix that. The home inspection took just under three hours. Apart from taking a few short phone calls (which he went elsewhere to field), he was working the whole time and was not distracted. At the end, we left a short questionnaire for the sellers and I wrote him a check (Mention Angie's List and you get 5% off, but I also did an extra $75 radon test).

I've used many and know plenty about house myself. He was right up there with the best of them.

I've used several Home Inspector previously and hired Stephen strictly on Angie List reviews. Frankly I don't know what all the fuss was about. He showed up dressed as if not to get dirty and believe me he didn't. I had a crawl space under a rear porch that he had access to but did not enter. During the inspection everything he pointed out; mold, asbestos, lead paint he led me to believe there was nothing to worry about then released a report so alarmist as to cover his rear end. I was more confused after his inspection than I was before. Did not feel I received my money's worth. He was very responsive to my calls and emails, which is the only good thing I can say.

Stephen came and inspected the home we would be purchasing. He did a thorough inspection, and charged us a fair price. I was away on business when the inspection was conducted, with my wife and the agent on site with Stephen. He told me in some detail over the phone the results of the inspection and answered my questions. Overall quite a positive experience.

Stephen was immediately responsive, punctual, provided clear recommendations and had the proper tools to evaluate the systems. He was a strong buyers advocate, and diligently investigated and then provided concrete examples and suggestions for needed improvements.

Stephen was early and started with an examination of the building's exterior and boiler room. We then proceeded to checking the roof and finally the apartment unit itself. Stephen took a lot of pictures and was very thorough in his inspection, checking every electrical outlet, appliances and windows. His report is not the narrative style, but more of a list of items and its comments. Pictures are also included, but strangely in a separate document. I have not used any other home inspector, but I guess he is definitely worth the price you pay for.

Stephen is an engineer, so he is excellent at pointing out structural problems. As we talked, I discovered that he had worked with an architect friend of mine, which made me trust him more. He told us what we needed to do, and pointed out the strengths as well as the weaknesses of our structure. He also gave me some names of people to call and do the repair work.