Willcox Inspections

Regardless of whether you are a homebuyer or seller, DO NOT USE this stubborn, arrogant inspector. If he was half as good as he thinks he is (and readily tells you), he would be pretty good, but he's NOT! All he did was cause both the buyer and me anguish while unnecessarily costing us money. It's quite apparent he justifies his payment by overwhelming you with a voluminous report. In this case, he issued a 90-page report on the 1997 house I was selling! What a joke. You would think that the house needed to be rebuilt. Totally unnecessary and I'm sure he overwhelmed the buyer. He didn't even follow his own guidance in trying to fulfill his requirements to the inspection contract:, - As he rightly points out the purpose of the inspection is to point out "significant defects". If he was following his own contractual agreement, he must think a fan slightly out of balance is significant, or ovens needing cleaned were significant, or bathroom exhaust fans being dusty were significant, or the garage door sensor being 7 inches off the ground instead of 6 inches was significant, or one of the thermostats being located next to the door heading into the garage was significant, or the headway going up the stairs being slightly less the 6'8* required clearance being a significant defect requiring attention. I could go on and on - As stated in his contractual agreement, compliance with codes and/or adequacy of wiring and circuitry was supposed to be beyond the scope of the inspection, but his insistence on something he knew nothing about almost killed the deal.I'm sure he still doesn't admit that he was WRONG even though a 40+ year master electrician and an "independent electrician hired by the buyer's agent said he was. Fortunately, the buyer took the word of the real experts and not this wannabe electrician. Additionally, he included his personal opinion on the furnaces and air conditioners as opposed to evaluating whether there was presently a significant defect.He said since they had reached the end of their economic life expectancy, they should be replaced in his opinion. It didn't matter whether they were functioning. I wonder if he changes working light bulbs when they have reached their estimated useful life. What a joke this guy is and he supposedly teaches classes on inspecting. Wow! But the arrogance and rudeness of Wilcox is what is really irritating. After I hired a professional electrician, plumber, homebuilder, roofer and garage repairman to fix many of his supposed "significant" issues, he did a re-inspection and insulted every one of these professionals in his re-inspection report. - As noted above, he basically told the master electrician that he knew the wiring and resulting code better than the electrician. Wilcox should be embarrassed as he almost made the deal fall apart because of this, but his arrogance will continue. He's that type of guy. Read the review where he wrongly thought he was a foundation expert and caused the deal to fall through while costing the seller a lot of money. - According to Wilcox, "the alleged repair to a cracked beam was pathetic. It shows that the person who made it has no knowledge of lumber or structures at all." Hmmm, the repairman builds homes all the time and I've heard from multiple builders this is the common way to fix a cracked beam (i.e., they scabbed it and also braced both the front and back) I guess Wilcox wanted me to open up the roof so that a new beam could be installed? - A couple of wood areas were rotted per Wilcox's report and the wood needed to be replaced. My repairman stated the wood was structurally sound and not rotted, so caulk was added, the wood was sanded and then it was painted. I guess Wilcox never repaints weathered items? - Wilcox said damaged shingles remained on the surface of the roof without pointing any out. A layperson even knows shingles are damaged as soon as placed in service. Rest assured my roofer got paid for the shingles needing replaced. Why would the roofer leave any he felt needed replaced if he was going to get paid for replacing them? Oh yeah, Wilcox is a professional roofer as well. Laughable. - Also, the furnace sediment traps were a hot item for Wilcox even though they were installed per code when the house was built. The plumber basically told me that the traps very seldom come into play with the clean gas these days, but he would change the configuration. Per Wilcox, the wannabe plumber, this was a significant item. Another unnecessary expenditure. In summary, any astute reader would ascertain that FRED WILCOX WAS THE PROBLEM. He certainly was not a helpful facilitator in identifying "significant" issues and properly communicating those. Maybe he has reached the end of his useful economic life in the inspecting business and should be replaced by inspectors who are reasonable/logical in identifying useful solutions for real "significant" items???

Please read the above for how did it go.

Mr. Willcox came to us as a buyer's inspector. He was in our house for 30 minutes. 30. Minutes. Inspections should run 3 to 4 hours. I found this strange, but I thought 'hey, maybe he's THAT good'.  Afterwards, Mr. Willcox told the buyers we had severe foundation deficiency, which they used as their excuse to bail out (although they didn't need an excuse during the option period, they could have just told us they changed their mind and not lost a cent).  Because of this finding, we had to hire a structural engineer and have foundation companies come out to see what the case was.  No foundation issues whatsoever.  Obviously, the buyers wanted out and used Mr. Willcox as their vehicle to do so.  So if you want an inspector who will say whatever you want for a price, he's your man.  if you want someone with scruples, please use somebody else.  i cannot express the trouble and stress he has caused us.

It went well.  He highlighted issues with the home.

Fred arrived early and checked the house from top to bottom, discovering several things we needed to ask the current owners to repair. He was kind and patient with two first-time home buyers, and let us ask all the questions we wanted to. His report came to us later, and we were extremely pleased with the whole experience.

Fred was very friendly and seemed very knowledgeable. He is a civil engineer and helped write the inspection codes for Texas, which was a plus for us. He did a very thorough inspection and pointed out small problems that others might have missed. He took time to answer all of our questions.