Housemaster Inspection Services-Belmont

Chris S. did the inspection on a house I had a contract on. He was very thorough and professional and uncovered many items that would have cost a lot of money to fix. My thanks to Chris and Tara (in their office) for their help and professionalism.

Unfortunately, most of the problems with this inspection were not discovered until I sold the house almost two years later and the buyers had it inspected, although there were red flags during and post inspection. This cost me about $10,000. During the inspection, Derrick, the inspector missed a few things that I ended up pointing out to him, such as warped floors and caulking issues. These were minor. After I moved in I discovered other issues, such as structures built on rail road ties as foundation, exposed live wires in the attic, extremely poor attic insulation, and a malfunctioning well. When I sold the house the buyer's inspector found structural issues under the house, electrical issues that should easily have been found such as missing grounds and revered hot/neutrals, deterioration of the chimney cap (housemasters did not go on the roof, their report suggested the homeowner regularly inspect the roof - isn't that why I hired you?). There were a host of other things missed as well, although they did catch other items. As someone who has bought and sold a few properties, I can tell you there is a serious problem in the home inspection industry with inconsistency. Hire three inspectors and you will get three different reports. Some will blow minor things out of proportion, others will miss major issues. I think there are some good ones out there but they are few and far between. My agent in this transaction contacted Butch, the owner (and a member of the NC home inspectors board) but there was not much of a response beyond pointing out their warranty is 12 months and that the inspector sent to my home is "no longer is employed by Housemaster." I wonder why. You are much better off paying a little more and hiring a GC, structural engineer, HVAC tech, electrician and plumber separately if you can. Or find one of the good home inspectors out there; there are a few. I am very disappointed in the service and lack of response. Housemaster cost me well over $10,000 due to their negligence and won't even offer me a piddly refund. Look elsewhere.

Very disappointed with the quality of the inspection. Roof needed complete replacement and only repairs were noted in the inspection report. Repairs were made and now less than a year later we are out over $6000. The problem: the roof was not installed correctly and rotten plywood (this was not in the inspection report!). Very disappointed and will never recommend HouseMaster.

I've used this company twice. The first experience was fantastic. The second time which was in December I had a couple issues with the report. There was a code violation that was unfounded and a kitchen faucet rated Satisfactory that would not rotate from sink to sink. However, these guys handled the issues like professionals and owned up to it.. So, for the most part these guys are a top notch company in my book. I would hire them again.

Very detailed. They checked everything in the home and included a free termite inspection as well. Received a full report with photos and lots of good information on the home.

Butch and Christian were very professional and took the time to explain necessary repairs. I have utilized their service in the past and House Master always does great work. They are very detailed and take photos of areas that are in need of repair. The photos make the repair process much easier. Thank you for a job well done.

Horrible experience with House Masters Home Inspections. Stay away unless you want thousands of dollars in repairs for things they did not inspect! I moved to Charlotte 5/16 and literally knew no one here. I was highly recommended to a great realtor that honestly did a fantastic job for me. However, she suggested using House Masters for my home inspection because of the many clients she had referred to them. Because my home has stucco and I did a radon test, I ended up spending $1015 on the inspection. I was not able to be at the home during the inspection due to my work schedule. Fast forward to the first weekend after my purchase --> As I was unpacking my wife put our kids in the jacuzzi tub and turned on the jets. We remember seeing some "dirt" come out of the jets. I headed down to the garage and found that the water was leaking like a fire hydrant into my garage from the tub above. We shut everything off and called my realtor. She made some calls to the inspector (John) who came by and checked everything out. He claimed that he did run the jets for 30 mins and didn't see any issues. In the report he stated the jetted bath "rated fair due to age and functions as intended at time of inspection. Ran jetted tub for 30 minutes during inspection with no issues observed". He also rated the Tub as "P", which means Poor/Defective. After the fact I am realizing that they rate a lot of things which could break in the near future as "P" to cover their butts. The inspector basically told me the jets must of dry rotted in the last few weeks between the inspection and sale. I reached out to my realtor and told her that I believed the inspector never checked the jetted tub or else he would have found a ton of water in the garage. She told me she would reach out to the owner "Butch". The owner referred me to a local plumbing company in Charlotte. The plumber looked at the tub and informed me he didn't work on jacuzzi/jetted tubs, but after listening to our story he felt like the inspector never tested the jetted tubs. He even wrote that on the invoice. My realtor reached out to the owner and asked them to step up and cover the repair costs because it obviously was never inspected. The owner said he'd through in a couple hundred $'s, but no more. Let me warn you. If you are wanting to get a honest inspection, do not use this company. This company screwed me, and now I will need to cover the expense of repairing something that was never inspected by them (Again even their plumber agreed it wasn't inspected). Stay away of House Masters!

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It went extremely well.  I would recommend them to anyone.

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I found HouseMaster Inspections on Angie's List and they had an "A" rating backed by over 80 testimonials, so I felt pretty confident in using them for my inspection.  When I told my Realtor who I'd chosen she said she was familiar with them and uses them herself which also made me feel confident in my choice.  
Derrick Davis came to our house and spent over 2 hours going over every nuance of the place.  He checked all of the items I had on my mental checklist and was friendly and efficient while doing so.  At the end he explained what he saw and how we'd get the report via email.  I got the report the same day and was delighted to see how in-depth it was!  It included clear photos with arrows pointing out the exact issues.  I was impressed when he said they'll also let us know about appliance recalls moving forward and that they also offer a 1 year limited written repairs reimbursement guarantee.  I was surprised to learn that they offer these ongoing services and warranties.  It really solidified my decision on spending over $400 for an inspection solely for my own knowledge.  (I'm involved with a short sale deal where the seller makes no repairs regardless of what's found during an inspection.)  I believe I made a good decision in using HouseMaster Inspections; I'm now MUCH more informed about the home I plan to purchase which allows me to sleep better at night.  Thanks Derrick!!

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Mark Crawford was our inspector. He checked everything from top to bottom. He opened and closed windows and found issues with some windows, he checked the electric, he checked the plumbing, he went into the attic and found many hidden issues, and he checked the crawlspace. The items Mark found in the crawlspace were foundation problems. He suggested that we call the main office to see if they could send out one of their structural inspectors. They sent Kelly, and he found and explained in great detail what needed to be done, he even drew what the main beams were involved, and explained how they should be replaced. We really liked the house, and during the due dilligence period requested that the foundation issues be addressed to the specifications suggested by housemasters. The sellers were not interested in making the structural repairs, so we walked away from a cute little house within walking distance to downtown Matthews. I trust their inspectors, they are extremely thorough, the inspectors explain their findings in great detail, and welcome questions. The whole experience from warm greeting when you first call, the timeliness of the inspectors, knowledge, experience, enable you the buyer to have confidence to make a careful decision about the physical shape of the home you are considering buying.

I didn't have any issues with them. They were fine. I can't say anything that I liked or dislike. It was the first home that I purchased so it was my first experience using a home inspector. I could say that it was nice that they gave me an abundance in resources of information on disk and through their website. It was quick.

They did a good job. There was nothing negative with the experience.

I was very pleased with their service. They identified some problems, I had them repaired, they reinspected it for us and they seemed to do a very good job. The price was reasonable as far as I could tell. There's no factor of the service that is troublesome.