Home Inspection Blog

I'm excited to officially announce that Midwest Inspect is now serving clients as a licensed home inspector in both Illinois and Wisconsin. Illinois is where I originally became licensed and built Midwest Inspect. It's where I've crawled through attics, squeezed into crawlspaces, walked roofs, opened electrical panels and explained to countless homeowners that, no, the strategically placed bucket under the plumbing is not technically a repair. Now we're crossing the state lin

The Home Inspector’s Early-Fall HVAC & Safety Check The Midwest Homeowner Survival Guide: Summer → Fall — Part 4 Check these 10 crucial furnace maintenance tips for Illinois homeowners to ensure a safe and efficient transition into fall. Stay prepared with Midwest Inspect's safety checklist. The worst time to discover your furnace doesn’t work is the exact same morning everyone else in Illinois discovers theirs doesn’t work. You know the morning. Yesterday it was 78°. Today i

Snow is nature's version of fresh paint. Everything looks great when you can't see what's underneath it. Every fall in Illinois, our homes slowly begin disappearing. First, the grass gets covered with leaves. Then the landscaping starts dying back. Daylight disappears sometime around lunch. And eventually snow arrives and gives the entire property a beautiful white blanket that says: "Don't worry about any of this until April."

By late summer, your house has taken a beating. As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, this is the time of year when I start noticing the evidence. The good news? Late summer and early fall give homeowners a perfect opportunity to catch small problems before snow, ice, freezing temperatures and another Illinois winter arrive. So grab a cup of coffee, walk around the house, and pretend you're a home inspector for 20 minutes. Here’s what I’d be looking for.

If you've ever owned a home, you've probably had one of these moments. You're carrying laundry downstairs. You notice a crack. You stop. You stare at it. You immediately grab your phone and type: "Is this normal?" Ten minutes later, Google has convinced you that: your foundation is collapsing, your furnace has one week to live, and your water heater is plotting against your family. Take a deep breath. As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, I answer these questions almost e

Nobody ignores a $20,000 repair. But a $100 repair? That one's easy to put off until next weekend. Or next month. Or... next year. As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, I've learned something after inspecting hundreds of homes throughout Illinois: The biggest repair bills almost never begin with a catastrophic event. They begin with something so small that most homeowners barely notice it.

As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, summer is one of my favorite seasons. Homeowners are finally outside again, tackling projects that have been on the "I'll get to it next weekend" list since April. It's also the season when small maintenance issues can become expensive repairs if they're ignored. And for realtors and homeowners alike, this is the season where proactive maintenance can make or break a deal—or protect thousands of dollars in equity.

I Appreciate the Effort, But Please Don't Do This to Your House Tales of DIY Disasters: Exploring the Top 10 DIY Home Repairs Gone Wrong. As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, I want to start by saying something important: I love DIY projects. Some homeowners are incredibly talented. I've seen beautiful decks, impressive renovations, custom woodworking, and repairs that rival professional craftsmanship. And then... I've seen the other stuff. The repairs that make me stop,

As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, the first 60 seconds often tell me a surprising amount about a property. Now before homeowners panic...This isn't about judging. I'm not grading landscaping choices. I'm not criticizing lawn ornaments. And I'm definitely not reporting your inflatable Christmas decorations still standing in June. But homes leave clues. Lots of clues. And many of them are visible before I ever step foot inside. Let's take a walk from the street to the f

People often assume home inspectors spend their days looking at roofs, furnaces, and electrical panels. And they're right. Mostly. But what many people don't realize is that every house tells a story. Sometimes those stories are funny. Sometimes they're bizarre. Sometimes they're downright unbelievable. And occasionally... They're surprisingly emotional. After hundreds of inspections throughout Illinois, I've seen a little bit of everything. Here are ten of the strangest thin