What is actually serious?
A hundred pages of findings, and no way to tell which ones the purchase turns on. We separate the things to settle before your contingencies are removed from the things every house of that age has.
The package just arrived
Walk away, or counter? And by how much?
Send us the disclosure package and the inspection report. We read every document and tell you what it means for your offer: what is serious, what is normal for a house this age, what it is likely to cost, and which parts of the house nobody was able to check.
First report free. One payment after that. No subscription, ever.
Three questions the paperwork does not answer
What is it likely to cost?
Every repair figure says where it came from: a contractor’s quote, a past invoice, or a planning allowance. An item nobody has priced says so, rather than reading as free.
What did nobody check?
All ten parts of the house, each marked reviewed, partly reviewed, not reviewed, or not there. So you know what the silence means.
Unknown does not mean sound
Every report we produce lists all ten parts of the house and says, for each one, whether it was reviewed, partly reviewed, not reviewed, or not present. If nobody looked under the house, the report says nobody looked under the house.
Most reports of this kind end with a line saying no tool finds everything. That is true, and it tells you nothing. Ours tells you exactly where the gaps are, so you can decide whether to go and fill them.
Unknown does not mean sound. It means no adequate evidence was available.
An example, not a real property. A real one is at /sample.
| Part of the property | What was looked at |
|---|---|
| Site and drainage | Reviewed |
| Structure and foundation | Reviewed |
| Roof, walls and windowsThe roof was seen from the ground only. | Partly reviewed |
| Plumbing | Reviewed |
| Electrical | Reviewed |
| Heating and cooling | Reviewed |
| Interior and appliances | Reviewed |
| Life safety | Reviewed |
| Environmental hazardsNo testing for asbestos, lead or radon was in the package. | Not reviewed |
| Title and permitsNo title document or permit history was supplied. | Not reviewed |
The scary word is not always the expensive one
A buyer we read about walked away from a sound house over some foundation repointing. It would have cost about 1,500 dollars. The word “foundation” did the damage, not the finding.
Meanwhile a furnace on its last legs, which sounds like maintenance, can cost several times that and is due sooner.
We grade every finding on three separate scales, because they are three separate questions: how soon it needs doing, how much it is likely to cost, and how well established it is. Most reports collapse those into one severity label, and that is where the mistake gets made.
Structure and foundation
Repointing to a section of the foundation wall, described in the inspection report as cosmetic mortar loss with no movement observed.
- When
- Plan for it
- How much it matters
- Minor
- How well established
- Documented in the package
$1,400 to $1,800A contractor quote in the package
Where this comes from: A contractor quote in the package.
Heating and cooling
The furnace is approximately 40 years old and past expected service life, with no record of replacement in the package.
- When
- Settle before contingencies are removed
- How much it matters
- Major
- How well established
- Reported in the package
$6,500 to $11,000A planning allowance, because nobody has quoted this
Where this comes from: A planning allowance, because nobody has quoted this.
Three steps
- 1. Send the package. The seller’s disclosure, the inspection report, the pest and roof reports, the HOA documents, whatever you have.
- 2. We read all of it. Every document, every page. We pull out the findings, remove the duplicates where three reports describe the same thing, and price what can be priced.
- 3. You get the report. What the property looks worth given its condition, a range to offer, a monthly cost of owning it, and what to hold back for the things nobody could check.
One payment. That is the whole arrangement.
Your first report is free. After that it is paid once, with no account to cancel and no renewal to forget about. The price is not set yet, and we would rather leave it blank than print a number we are about to change.
For comparison: the inspection you have already paid for averages about 344 dollars, and an attorney reading the same documents runs to about 500 and takes a few days you may not have.
What we do not do
- We do not check title or find liens. We can read a title document you send us. We cannot confirm what the title actually says today, and we will not imply otherwise.
- We do not know the permit history. If work was done without a permit, we will not find that.
- No person reads your report before you do. It is produced automatically, start to finish. Some services put a human reviewer in the loop. We do not, and you should weigh that.
- We will not catch everything. Nobody does. The difference is that we tell you where we could not look.
- State-specific requirements cover California and Kentucky only. Everywhere else, we read your documents exactly the same way, but we cannot tell you what your state requires a seller to disclose.
- Utility costs are modelled from state averages, not from this property’s bills.
- We have never measured our own accuracy, because we have nothing honest to measure it against. Anyone quoting you a percentage should be asked what they measured.
Your contingency period is already running
First report free. One payment after that. No subscription, ever.