KEN BAKER INSPECTIONS

I’m not allowed to go into detail, but just trust me. You do not want to work with this man, or his son Carl.

First encounter with Ken Baker, He explained so much to me. He was on time and straight to the point. Ken Baker did an inspection of a home that I intended to purchase. After I closed on the home, I receive notification from the homeowner's insurance company stating that my roof was in horrible condition. I contacted Ken Baker and he sent a letter supporting his findings of the condition of the roof. Ken Baker stated the roof was good for " 6-10 years". The insurance company rejected the letter. I had 2 professional contractors assess the roof. Both companies revealed photos that showed shingles that were nailed and lifting and horrible water damage in the attic/crawl space. None of Ken Baker's photos in his report showed the vast amount of damage. I emailed Ken Baker to notify him of my disappointment of his work and received no response. I have also called him, and my call was sent to voice mail. The condition of a roof is something that I could have negotiated at or before the time of closing. Ken Baker took that privilege away from me. About a month after purchasing, I had to get my roof replaced for $11,500. My advice is do not hire Baker Inspection services. He is not honest and not thorough enough to ensure you are making a wise home purchase. My realtor will not be recommending his services either.

Absolutely DO NOT hire Ken Baker. We did, to inspect a home we were purchasing, and we could only stay on site for downstairs half of the inspection, which seemed to proceed as it should. In the full report we later received, Ken indicated that all of the drains were operational. However, it turns out the upstairs drains were not--running the water for 20 seconds made it obvious there were serious clogs and a single upstairs toilet flush also made it clear there were problems. It's pretty obvious Ken did not complete the most cursory of inspections of the two upstairs bathrooms. Three emergency plumbing visits and a ripped out kitchen ceiling later, we are now out 2K and counting (plus the added stress and mess of having massive plumbing problems during a move, during a pandemic). The absolute worst part, however, is that after four unreturned phone calls, we finally reached Ken, who promised to 'consult his notes' but he hasn't returned a single call since, either to us or to our realtor. That was well over a month ago. Clearly he was negligent; if his inspection was above board, he wouldn't have to duck our calls. He owes us the cost of inspection and then some. Our relator said he will never work with him again, and we'd advise you to do the same.

I hired Ken Baker to inspect a house. I was not present for the inspection. In the inspection report, he stated that the drain was fine and `appeared serviceable'. However, I had multiple plumbers look at my drain and say how it was not up to code. This replacement will cost me upwards of $1,500. Furthermore, once I turned on the water main, it was clear that multiple pipes were leaking. It would have been obvious to anybody, so it is clear that Ken Baker did not even turn on the water for the inspection report. The worst violation, however, is the follow through. I have been trying to call/email him for a few weeks now and all I get is voicemail. He is clearly liable and I should receive a refund, but they are avoiding me.

Ken and Carl arrived 45 minutes early. This was a little unnerving since as the seller we are scrambling around making sure everything is clean and ready and these guys are on the porch. Overall he did a good inspection. My only real problem with him was the mess he left behind. He completely dug up the yard in three different places and then left the large clumps of sod six to eight inches above the rest of the lawn. This required me to spend two hours removing and redigging and leveling my lawn before the lawn mowers were due to mow the next morning. He also left both attic access doors ajar and insulation all over the floor in my daughters bedroom. She brought me a handful of pink fiberglass insulation, thinking it was cotton candy! So I texted him to see if he was planning to come back and clean up. No response. Finally I just did it myself. Two days later he came back to get the radon test with no appointment and no agent. I’m not sure how he was planning on getting it out of my basement if I wasn’t home. I really hope the agent didn’t give him the code to the lock box! When he came back, I explained my problem and he said “I’ll just leave and you can redo the test another time!” He turned around and walked off the porch. I asked him to please come and take it so we could be done with the inspection and he walked in and took it without another word to me. No apologies. Nothing. When I buy another home, I will absolutely avoid Baker Inspections! He was rude, messy, unapologetic, and unprofessional. He might’ve done a good inspection, but there are others out there who can do the very same thing and be polite about it.

Ken is very knowledgeable and helpful at answering questions you ask and questions you should ask haha.

We were buying a house and called Ken Baker to schedule an inspection of it. He was able to fit us in for the very next day, a Friday evening. He was there early and got a head start on inspecting the outside of the property. Ken was friendly and knowledgeable, explaining everything during every step of the process. He was prompt in providing all of the reports - the general house inspection the very next day, and the radon and water tests as soon as the results came in. I would not hesitate to recommend Ken to anyone else who needed his services. Our realtor said that he had used Ken when he bought his own house, and he has seen a lot of inspections with his buyers, so that was something else really positive.

unknown

unknown

This was my first home inspection so I didn't know what to expect. The inspection covered roof and structure condition; basic electrical; plumbing; large appliances; basement condition; general structural overview of home. The inspection was only my second time viewing the home and I was still seeing it as a potential buyer, along with expert eyes to help form my decision. I believe the job was just as normal as any other - I received a report at the end detailing relatively minor items that needed attention. Based on the inspection, the offer on the house was adjusted minimally. After closing and when I had time to really see and spend time in the house, I almost immediately noticed what appears to be fire damage underneath the bathtub in the basement. The floor boards are in precarious condition due to their charred condition. After two days, the faucet in the bathtub leaked so badly that it had to be replaced. On basic inspection by plumber, it was revealed that tile was cheaply placed directly on old drywall and that a homemade pipe configuration was used to make existing bath/shower. A small faucet replacement ended up taking almost seven hours and was just under $1,000 because the wall fell apart and pipes had to be refit completely.
The home inspection revealed rather benign plumbing and electrical issues to be reviewed/repaired and the estimate from Baker Inspection was around a few hundred dollars. Subsequent review of the plumbing alone shows a rather complete overhaul is necessary, along with the ridiculously under-estimated electrical inspection.
All of the above can be hard to manage, but perhaps expected when buying an older home. What is most problematic was trying to reach out to Ken after discovering the charred damage and asking him to simply take a look He completely vanished - never once returning phone calls and making no attempt to stand behind his original inspection. I waited more than a month to write this because I understand its consequences and harsh tone. I don't believe in being just angry without first trying to rectify a situation. The lack of communication and unwillingness to even communicate are disturbing to me and cause me to question the quality of other parts that were inspected. I'm really disappointed.

Ken was great.

I had read some reviews that he came early, so I came 10 minutes early to a ladder going up to the house and took a walk around only to meet ken on my way back around as he was getting down from the roof. He already had news before the appointment.

Ken was very thorough, with recommendations and all. He helped identify 3 major areas and many minor ones that would have been generally dangerous or uncomfortable for a house to possess.

I'd highly recommend Ken to any seller wishing to hear the truth or any buyer wanting to uncover it. He was able to accurately date most of the work and components very effectively as well as modifications that had been done and the condition of the components themselves.

Ken got there before we did to check out the roof and get set up. He walked us around the perimeter and told us what he saw there (mostly minor things -- a bit of grading mostly). We followed him as he inspected the house. He had come a couple days earlier to set up the radon test, so we got the results that day. He was careful and thorough, telling us about things as we looked at them. Most things were as expected for a 40-year-old house, and he didn't make a big deal of things that were outdated and in need of updating (lots of opportunities to improve energy efficiency, for instance!) The big finding was a cracked heat exchanger in the 40-year-old furnace. When the seller's inspector didn't see the crack, Ken came out the next day and showed it to him. This made a big difference in our negotiations! He also correctly pegged the year of the house as being different from the listing. We confirmed this with the city afterwards and they were going to correct their records.
Ken doesn't use fancy tablets or computerized reports and doesn't take pictures, but the checklist report that he filled out in our presence was very complete with explanatory notes where appropriate. He added a couple of notes where I knew I wouldn't remember something he said. It was obvious that he enjoys his work, and he made the process enjoyable for us also.

I have used Ken Baker twice for inspections of potential investment properties. He is always early, he gives very good advice, and provides a report at the end of the inspection. I would recommend Ken to anyone.

Ken was performing a house inspection on a house we are looking to purchase. Ken arrived before us and the realtor. Ken had already done a preliminary scan of the house before our arrival and immediately was able to walk through things with me. It was clear that Ken has an eye for inspecting houses. This was a very enjoyable experience. He would make jokes throughout the inspection. At the end of the inspection, he wrote up a report and reviewed it with us. He also expressed in his opinion the major concern. He then followed-up with our realtor and wrote an additional summary of the major issue so it could be addressed. Ken spent ~3.5 hours at the location. I would use his services again.

It was an excellent experience for both the seller and the purchaser. Ken was willing to come from Dexter to Novi on a Friday evening and spent more than four hours completing the inspection and educating the new home owners.

Ken Baker showed up early to late Friday night home inspection and spent several hours inspecting what would be our first home. After watching Holmes Inspection for weeks on end leading up the real inspection I was fearful of how it would proceed. Especially since we were purchasing a foreclosure. Ken was great! He found all of the problems with our home and took us on a detailed tour of his findings. His report was succinct but thorough. I think the general contractors we had on site were impressed as well because I remember them jotting down his name and number into their phones for future reference.

Ken showed up on time. He was quite friendly (maybe a little too laid back for my taste at times) and provided easy-to-understand information about the house. He was personable and respectful, which made it easy to ask him questions. It's hard for me to judge the quality of his work (won't know if he got anything wrong until something goes wrong w/ my house in a few years), but he seemed to know his stuff and he was very thorough.